Draco Malfoy, Incubus
by Zikare
Summary: Draco's an incubus. The incubi have little control over the impulse to invade dreams, so are forced to take a suppression potion. With the public opposition, the Malfoys have hid their affliction. That is until now, when it comes to Ministry attention that Draco has given birth to three children; something that can only happen if one of the parents is infected. Slash. Drarry.
1. Chapter 1

Harry apparated to Malfoy Manor and knocked on the door. An elderly house elf answered. He asked to speak with the master of the house and was led into a large, extravagant library off of the entryway. He waited for twenty minutes before he heard the sound of hard heels clacking on the marble floor and then the crack of the door opening.

Draco Malfoy stepped through the door with his head held high and his chin out. His hair was longer now than it had been in Harry's dreams, but not nearly so long as Lucius' had been. The pale blond hair glistened with streaks of silver that shone in the light of the sconces on the wall. Draco's eyes were hard and possessed none of the light Harry was used to seeing in them in his dreams, although they were bordered by pale eye lashes that were just as thick and voluptuous as they were in his dreams. The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and mouth were ever so much more defined, indicating the years that had passed.

That Malfoy had changed in the same direction he had in Harry's dreams was not surprising, nor was the fact that Malfoy had continued to age in the same direction in the years since the last dream. Malfoy's picture made it into the paper a few times a year and Harry had seen him in person half a dozen times since the end of the war. Harry had fixated on those pictures and memories to the point where he'd noticed details he'd never bothered to see before, such as the fact that Malfoy had the same heavily lidded eyes at Bellatrix Lestrange and her sister Dromeda Tonks. Only the feature was hidden by the fact that the lash hairs were almost transparent in their paleness. And once the trait had registered in his subconscious, Harry's dreams had reproduced it precisely in all its beauty.

Sometimes he fantasized about Draco Malfoy while he was awake, but it was so much lifelike when the images came to him in his sleep. The dreams had been coming to Harry for years, for so long that he could hardly pinpoint when it was they had started. They weren't a regular occurrence, but intermittent. He would experience a string of them, having several dreams a week for months in a row and then nothing. They would stop and he'd be left with a feeling of loss and loneness.

Harry had left his ex-boyfriend Shelton, because the dreams were too brilliant for Shelton to compete. Then there was Grant, who left Harry over the dreams when they had suddenly come back to him after a dry spell of two years. Since Grant, Harry had been too fixated on his loss to even think about dating; he just couldn't get out of the funk created by his latest dry spell. There were a dozen failed dates and a few horrible blind dates scattered in between Shelton, Grant, and the dreams, but that was the sum total of his entire sex life.

Ginny, of course, had been before Shelton and before the dreams had started. If Harry would've known how exciting, sexually rewarding, and just plain bloody brilliant a relationship could be, even if only in his dreams, he would've never wasted so much of Ginny's time. He felt bad for how things ended with her; he thought he loved her once, before he knew what love was.

Back then, Harry had thought love was something a man felt for a woman. He'd been looking for it with Ginny and Cho, who were both beautiful. Both had worked for a time, but now he knew that he utterly lacked passion for them and hadn't experienced a tenth of the desire that was possible. These days he knew better; love was something a man felt for the man in his dreams. He would give almost anything to have the dreams back and he would go even further if he could somehow make them reality.

That was a deluded thought, that Harry could have a relationship with the real Draco Malfoy. The Malfoy in his dreams was just that: a dream. He was nothing like this Malfoy. The dream one was kind, passionate, loving, and in love with Harry, while this one was the cold racist former Death Eater who stood before him in flesh and bone. Harry could never be with the real Malfoy and that was something he'd accepted a long time ago. He could not be with someone like that, no matter how attractive.

"Auror Potter, please sit down and have a cup of tea with me," Draco said, ushering Harry over to an ornate looking tea table with an antique silver tea set.

Harry sat, but didn't drink. Draco poured himself a cup and took his time, adding cream and sugar and stirring slowly in a clockwise manner.

"Lord Malfoy, if we could get down to business, I'd appreciate it," Harry said.

"And just what business is that?" Draco asked.

"I got a report that you have children living here at Malfoy Manor. I'm a case worker with the Child Welfare Division of the MLE. I've been sent out to investigate this claim."

"And who might my accuser be?" Draco asked, raising his teacup delicately to his lips and blowing on the steaming hot beverage.

"The Hogwarts list of future students. It came to Headmistress McGonagall's attention that there is a Scorpius Malfoy, age ten and a half, resident of one Malfoy Manor on the list of children to attend Hogwarts next year. This was surprising, because she did not know you had children or were married; surely something like that would be in all of the papers. She looked through the other lists of students and found two additional Malfoy children also living here," here Harry paused to look down at his notes on the clipboard he carried with him, "a Dionysus Malfoy, age six, and a Corona Malfoy, age three. Do you deny this?"

"Since when are children written down to attend Hogwarts grounds for child welfare investigations? Don't you have anything better to do than harass every parent in the country?"

"Since there is no record anywhere else of your children. You haven't filed birth certificates with the Ministry of Magic, nor is there any record of any Malfoy children being born at any of the wizarding hospitals in the country. The last Malfoy birth recorded was your own."

"Perhaps I did not feel like it. That doesn't mean my children are not taken care of," Draco said.

"You are the father then?" Harry asked, a part of his heart breaking. Up until this point, he'd held onto an unlikely hope that the Malfoy children were Narcissa Malfoy's children and that Draco was still available; Narcissa was old, but not so old that it was impossible. Not that he'd ever act on his feelings, but he could fantasize; now his fantasy was destroyed by three children and a spouse, because he'd never even dream of taking a husband and a father away from a family.

Draco nodded curtly and Harry wrote that down on his clipboard, before looking back up at Draco. "And who is the mother?" Harry asked.

"There is none."

"There _has_ to be a mother. If you don't tell me who, then I'll be forced to investigate further. I won't stop until I know the truth."

"Why do you need to know? She left them with me, their father, without endangering them. Their welfare has never for a moment been in question."

"Because there is no way to know that you didn't kidnap these children from their mother against her will. It has even occurred that a wizard murdered the mother of his children, in order to gain custody of them. I have to verify that that didn't happen in this case, Lord Malfoy."

"You think that just because I am a _wizard_ raising my children on my own, that I'm a _kidnapper_ and a _murderer_?" Draco's voice rose with incredulous intensity.

"If you were a witch, there would still be an investigation. The only reason to keep a child off of the Ministry's radar is to hide the existence of said child from the other parent."

"That is not the only reason," Draco interrupted.

"The terms of your release from Azkaban didn't restrict you from having children."

"No, they just mandated that every Malfoy from now until the end of time submit themselves for examination every five years to make sure that they are not preforming dark magic."

"There is an exception for children under the age of eleven."

"Oh, is there now?"

"Yes," Harry insisted.

"Then why was it that Pansy and Garrett Avery's daughter was brought in at the tender age of four for questioning?"

"Because the Averys were accused of performing dark magic. We only brought the child in to ascertain if she'd witnessed any acts of dark magic. It was a child welfare case."

"I think the child welfare system does more harm to children than the alleged crimes you are attempting to protect them from. Your division took a perfectly happy four-year-old from a loving family and a safe home and put her into the home of a pair of mudbloods, over nothing more than a false accusation. Do you deny it?"

"We had no way of knowing that accusation was false until we investigated. We gave the child back as soon as we determined the home to be safe."

"The child still has nightmares, did you know?" Draco asked.

"No, I didn't. But it's better that she may have nightmares than to grow up in a dangerous environment."

"She was never at risk of growing up in a dangerous environment."

"We couldn't have known that, Malfoy!"

"No, but you could do a better job ensuring the safety of the homes you leave our children in. Do you deny that little Gyldan Flint was beaten and molested in the home of a Mudblood couple your department ruled to be safer than her own?"

"Marcus Flint was a Death Eater sentenced to life in Azkaban for his crimes. He broke out and his wife decided to take their daughter with them on the run. When we captured them, we had no choice but to take the little girl into custody. The foster family cleared every background check and psychology test, so there was no way of knowing that was going to happen. We regret what happened and the little girl has now been placed with her great grandmother."

"And why wasn't little Gylddy _initially_ placed with her great grandmother?" Draco asked with a harsh tone to his voice.

"Because the woman was thought to be too old to care for such a young child and it was thought that she was involved with hiding the fugitives. It was a mistake. Our division is committed to minimizing errors and making sure such mistakes don't happen again."

"If I would have registered my children, there would be a false allegation of my misconduct every day, simply because decent folk like yourself cannot bear for someone like me to have children. They would call it for the good of the children and insist that I was indoctrinating them into the racist beliefs my parents taught me or teaching them to worship our fallen Lord. Even if I was a witch and you knew who the mother was, you'd be out here harassing me."

"If you were a witch with unregistered children, then I would be out here trying to find out who the father was, in order to inform the wizard of the existence of his children. Ministry law says that both parents have a right to know that they have a child in the world."

"She knows. She left me the children; she doesn't want them."

"If that's true, give me enough information to verify your story and I'll go away. I won't tell the press and the false accusations will never come."

"I don't want you poking your nose in here and stirring up trouble. Right now my children don't even realize that they ever had a mother to leave them. Leave my children out of this."

"Look Malfoy, I won't have to question your kids unless you refuse to tell me who their mother is. Just give me a name and I'll track her down. If she verifies your story, there will be no further investigation."

"She's dead."

"I thought you said she left you."

"No, I said she left the children. She never left me; it was them she didn't want. I don't want them to know they weren't wanted."

"Eventually they are going to wonder, especially once they get old enough to remember her and ask where she went."

"They won't remember her; she never even held them. Milli gave birth right here, and when I tried to bring little Scorp over to show her, she refused to look. She said she wanted nothing to do with him and repeated that sentiment with Nysus and Cori."

"Milli? As in Millicent Bulstrode?" Harry asked, latching onto this key piece of information.

Millicent Bulstrode was indeed dead. She had died in the same explosion that almost killed Harry two years ago. It had taken him almost a year to recover, but at least he had lived. She, on the other hand, had been closer to the blast and was blown apart. They were never able to find any conclusive proof that she had been involved with the group of dark wizards Harry had been chasing, nor were they able to prove her innocence, because all of the evidence was destroyed by the explosion. Two of the dark wizards hadn't survived the blast, while an additional three escaped, only to be killed instead of surrendering. With everyone who knew the truth dead, there was no way to know whether Millicent Bulstrode had been an innocent bystander or was aiding and abetting criminals.

"Yes," Draco confirmed sadly. "She's been dead almost two years now. Your precious Aurors murdered an innocent and then accused her to cover it up. You ruined her name, just so you wouldn't have to admit that your bloody reckless chase resulted in the death of a civilian bystander. She was only there, in the wrong place at the wrong time, because of her stupid brother and idiotic cousin. Her doomed relatives thought that she wouldn't be using her chicken coop and that she would never notice. Only Garrett and Pansy had a go at raising chickens, failed miserably, and gave the sole surviving bird to my Milli. You got her killed because she was checking on her chicken."  
"That's not true; they couldn't discover the truth with everyone dead. And I was too busy in a coma to do anything about it until the story was long over," Harry protested. Draco just shrugged. Harry took a deep breath, refocused, and got back on track with his questioning. "So Millicent Bulstrode is the mother of all three of your children?"

Draco nodded.

"None of your children have any memory of their mother, because Millicent refused to see them?" Harry asked another. Draco nodded. "And there is no way of verifying your story, because Millicent is dead and her body was badly charred and then cremated, preventing the possibility of a maternity test."

"Correct Potter. Now if you'll kindly leave so that I can get back to my children-" Draco started to say, but Harry cut him off.

"I can't leave without questioning your children and your mother. If they all verify your story, then I'll go." Of course Harry would still have to investigate further and confirm with Bulstrode's friends and family that she had indeed been pregnant three times.

Draco wasn't happy about it and insisted on making Harry promise not to give any information away to the children regarding who their mother was, before he would consent.

An aging Narcissa Malfoy came down first and confirmed Draco's story about Millicent Bulstrode being the mother. Narcissa complicated matters, by mentioning that Millicent had stayed at Malfoy Manor during all three of her pregnancies, to hide the children from her parents. Millicent's parents would never approve of her abandoning her children and would insist upon a marriage. Narcissa Malfoy tried to insist upon a marriage, but Draco had forbidden her from getting involved. If Millicent didn't want anything to do with his children, Draco wasn't going to force her. Millicent hadn't even spent time with the older children when she was pregnant with the younger and staying under the same roof, instead confining herself to the guest suite.

Even if Millicent's parents had been kept in the dark, Harry was certain that she must've told her friends. At the very least, someone must have known that she was in a relationship with Draco Malfoy. It would mean detective work on Harry's part, but detective work was something he was good at.

After Harry finished questioning Narcissa, the three Malfoy children were brought in, one at a time, for questioning. Scorpius Malfoy was a smart young man, excited for the prospect of going off to Hogwarts next year. The child had Draco's pale blond hair, light grey eyes, and sharp features, but he was several shades darker than Draco had been as a child, due to a love of swimming. He also loved reading books, accounting for his need for the pair of round spectacles he wore. He had no memory of ever having a second parent or a need for one. He had his father and his grandmother and that was enough.

Dionysus was a rambunctious and extremely active six-year-old, almost seven, who had trouble sitting still long enough to answer Harry's questions. His skin was as dark as Scorpius', but that was where the resemblance ended. Dionysus' hair was as dark as Scorp's was light, paired with a pair of bright blue eyes that reminded Harry of Sirius. Dionysus even shared Sirius' love of mischief, reminding Harry that Draco and his children were his late godfather's closest living relatives, besides his own godson, Teddy Lupin.

As far as Harry could tell, Dionysus had no concept that the word mother could be applied to anyone other than Narcissa Malfoy. Little Dionysus seemed to think that everyone had only one parent, either a mother or a father. He had a father and his father had a mother and that was all there was.

Corona, or Cori as she called herself, was barely three and incredibly shy. She wouldn't leave Draco's arms, so Harry couldn't question her alone. The only thing she said out loud was her own name. She raised three fingers when asked her age, but resorted to nodding and shaking her head to answer the rest of Harry's questions, if she answered at all. And even when she did answer, Harry couldn't tell if she had understood or not.

The only information Harry got out of her was from her appearance, because of the three children, this one looked the most like Millicent Bulstrode. Where her brothers were lean and thin, Corona was pudgy. Her black hair she shared with her middle brother; the same hair color Millicent had had. Her chin was much larger than Draco's; it wasn't jutting, as Millicent's had been, but halfway in between Draco's sharp, pointy chin and Millicent's larger, squarish jaw. The nose was too small for her round face, just as Millicent's had been.

The only features that bespoke of Draco in his daughter were Cori's light grey eyes and her beauty. Even with so many of her mother's features, little Cori's face was pleasant to look upon, somehow imbibing Draco's good looks. Harry couldn't put his finger on just what was different about this child's face to make her so much more attractive than her mother, but it was undeniable. Maybe it was just the way her eyes lit up with laughter when Draco tickled her, but Harry was captivated. The name Corona suited her, because she was as radiant as the sun.

Harry wanted to stay and get to know Draco's children. He didn't know why he was drawn to them, other than the secret crush he'd harbored for Malfoy for so long. Maybe it was the fact that Millicent would have been pregnant with Corona when Harry himself had had that strange dream that he was an Incubus and had gotten Draco pregnant. It was jealousy or desire that made him want those children; Scorpius, the smart one, Dionysus the troublemaker, and Corona the shy beauty.

But whatever it was, Harry had no right feeling it. He was an investigator and had promised to leave as soon as the children had answered his questions, a fact that Draco was quick to remind Harry of when he lingered. Harry had no choice but to leave. Besides, he had a job to do; he had to verify that these were really Millicent Bulstrode's children, so that he could close the case.

* * *

Author's Note: I've been working on this story for a long time now, but after many false starts, I believe I finally have it worked out. It's not my best work, but it does answer the question of how Harry would deal with it if he had a child who was as bratty as Draco. These Malfoy children won't be going easy on him. Please Review!


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: I would like to thank Isabella Ann Malfoy, MidnightShadeux, 7, and natsuki23 for the wonderful feedback. You are awesome!

* * *

Harry set about to question every one of Millicent Bulstrode's family members, friends, and acquaintances. He wanted to believe Draco's story, but as person after person failed to corroborate it, he began to have doubts. How much of what Draco had told him was true? Were the children really Millicent Bulstrode's, or were they someone else's? If they weren't hers, then whose were they?

Most of Millicent's friends and family knew Draco too and what they had to say puzzled Harry. After months of tracking down people who knew Millicent Bulstrode and or Draco Malfoy, Harry had to conclude that there was absolutely no evidence they were ever in a relationship together. Not only that, but he had many statements that outright contradicted the statements Draco had made. Bulstrode wasn't seen pregnant before the births of Draco's three children, but also she was seen _not_ pregnant during the key time periods. She did not seclude herself in Malfoy Manor, as Draco claimed, ever. She was never cut off from her friends and family. She couldn't have been the woman who gave birth to Draco's three children.

But why would Draco lie? And why was it that Draco himself had secluded himself from society during each pregnancy? Why was it that not even his so-called friends knew where the Malfoy children came from? As far as the Wizarding public was concerned, Draco went on three long-term vacations out of the country and each time had a new baby with him when he returned. With Scorpius it had been France, with Dionysus Spain, and finally with Corona, he'd gone to Australia. Why had he gone to the other side of the world to have a baby?

There was the possibility that Draco was hiring a surrogate to have children for him. It was clear that for whatever reason he hadn't gone the typical route of marriage to reproduce. It certainly wasn't true that no one would have him, because Harry found several witches who expressed interest in Draco during his interviews. That left the possibility that Draco didn't want to marry and didn't want a wife. Maybe the one he really wanted got away or maybe he couldn't stand the idea for some other reason.

Harry's mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that Draco was gay. But then he wanted Draco to be gay, so that he'd still have a shot with the wizard. It was all wishful thinking on Harry's part. Besides, being gay still didn't explain the children. Male pregnancy was possible, but only with an Incubus. Harry had had himself tested and he wasn't one, therefore it was impossible that the children hadn't come from a witch…unless there was another wizard involved who was an Incubus. But that idea was so absurd that Harry dismissed it out of hand. It was too unbelievable that the very thing Harry had dreamed about had actually happened, but not to him. Draco couldn't have been impregnated by an Incubus and couldn't be gay.

When you eliminate the impossible, what you are left with is the truth. But what was Harry left with? He'd eliminated every possibility, from the likely to the improbable to the impossible. From his years of Auror work, he knew just what the book says to do in such a case: start back at the beginning. Obviously, the impossible is what was happening here; he just had to find out which impossibility it was and to do that, he needed to pay another visit to Malfoy Manor.

"Go away," Draco Malfoy said by way of greeting.

"I have a few more questions for you," Harry replied.

"I don't have any more answers for you."

"That's not good enough. If you are shown to be in violation of-," Harry started, but was cut off.

"I'm not in violation of anything, besides wanting nothing to do with you and your Ministry. My side lost, yes, we got that. That doesn't mean you can force us to obey your side's laws. I opt out. I want nothing to do with your Ministry. I have asked you for nothing. If I have a problem, I'll handle it myself. This property was granted to my ancestors over a thousand years ago by the King of England himself, not the Minister of Magic. I acknowledge no ruler other than his or her Majesty. I have filed birth certificates for my children with the Muggles, I pay taxes to the Muggles, and I am in full agreement with all Muggle laws. Now if you'll just leave me alone and acknowledge that this land is a free and sovereign land of her Majesty the Queen of England, then we won't have a problem."

"Wait, are you actually saying that you prefer Muggle rule to Ministry of Magic rule? You'll bow to a Muggle, but not a wizard?" Harry asked incredulously. This was just so absurd that the only explanation was that Draco was hiding something major. Or was crazy.

"Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying Potter. I hereby officially succeed Malfoy Manor and all other Malfoy property from the British Ministry for Magic. Henceforth, please send a Muggle official out to question me."

"No."

"You have no authority here Potter. I've broken no rules involving magic. The bearing of children is a Muggle affair and the Muggles are quite satisfied with the state of things."

"I have a reasonable suspicion that you _have_ broken our rules. I have no doubt that you easily faked documentation that satisfied the Muggles with regards to where your children came from, but I have found no evidence in that regard. Nothing. There is no record of someone being pregnant before you suddenly show up freshly returned from a long vacation with a new baby. Where did your kids come from?"

"I already told you: Millicent Bulstrode."

"No. I have multiple eye witnesses who will testify that they saw Bulstrode during the key times and she was not pregnant."

"She hid it well."

"No, she didn't. She was never pregnant and you never had a relationship with her. I can prove it."

"Can I request a change of agent at least? This level of investigation is not customary with regards to simple matters of maternity."

"I thought you wanted nothing to do with the Ministry?"

"Correct. But if the Ministry is forcing itself on me, I would at least prefer to deal with someone other than you, Potter."

"Well Malfoy, tough shite, because you're stuck with me. I know Bulstrode isn't the mother and if you don't tell me who is, I will be forced to report you."

"Oh, and then what Potter? Are you going to level me with a fine or take my children away from the only home they've ever known?"

Draco had Harry there. Those really were two of only three options that were possible in this scenario. "Well yes, I will start by fining you. Then if you still refuse to provide truthful information, I will lock you in jail. I trust I don't need to relocate your children; your mother should provide adequate care. But if you still refuse to provide maternity information upon your release from jail, you will not be able to reside with your mother and your children. What arrangements you make to that end are up to you," Harry said firmly. That was procedure and he had nothing else with which to force cooperation with the law.

"Then give me my fine and leave," Draco replied.

Harry was left with no choice but to fine Draco. He wrote out the ticket and left. He had very little say in the matter after that. Draco paid the fine and was allowed to remain with his children for an additional three months. When that time passed without Draco providing the necessary information, he was jailed. Harry was called to give testimony to the panel of three Wizengamot members, which he did. It was standard procedure to sentence Draco to a month in jail, so that is what they did.

Draco wasn't sent to Azkaban, but the less strict Crouch Wizarding Jail. It was commissioned by Bartemius Crouch Senior's father half a century earlier and was used to house minor offenders for short time periods. The Dementors were gone from Azkaban, but they were never allowed at Crouch Jail, so being sent there had always been considered nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

Harry was certain that Draco would be alright, but he couldn't help but worry. It was no wonder he had another dream about Draco that first night.

 _Draco was standing, closed fists at his side, next to the cot in the small cell. His face was red with anger and scrunched up in an awful scowl. Harry's dreams of Draco were always surprisingly lifelike, which meant that he could make out every detail of the cell and it matched his recollection of the jail perfectly. It was almost as if Harry was really there with Draco. With a Draco who was incredibly pissed off at him._

 _Harry reacted as he had in school, Draco's anger setting off his own rage. Somehow the two Draco's, the real one and the dream one, were merged into one incredibly supercilious prick. This was the Draco who had chosen prison over the truth, leaving three children behind, as well as the Draco who had been visiting him off and on for over a decade and responsible for his failed love life. This was the man who left him time and time again, without warning and without explanation, only to show back up when he was with someone else. And this was the wizard who refused to cooperate with a standard investigation, making Harry's job as complicated as it could be. This was his ex with all of the baggage that entailed, along with his old school rival with the lifetime of hatred to go with it._

 _"You took me away from my children, you arsehole!" Draco practically spat the words, lacing them with the venom of his anger._

 _"Me? No, you did that by refusing to cooperate! You could still go home if you'd tell the courts where you got those children," Harry replied defensively, his hackles up._

 _"They are mine, only mine. There is no one else. I'm the only parent who has ever bothered to show up for those children. It's been just me and my mother raising three children. Thanks to you and your system, we don't even have my father."_

 _"Well maybe if the other parent knew about your children, she would help out. Does she even know? How have you managed to keep them from her?" Come the light of day, Harry might realize how little sense that made. It was impossible for a woman not to know she'd given birth once, let alone three times. But dreams were not logical and in this one, he had the feeling that whoever she was, she didn't know._

 _"I haven't kept them from her! She knows and she doesn't want them! She gave them to me and washed her hands of them!" Draco screamed back._

 _"Then prove it! Give me a name to investigate!"  
"I did! Millicent Bullstrode!"_

 _"Her real name! I already know it's not Bullstrode!"_

 _"It is Milli, you incompetent arse!"_

 _"I'm not an incompetent arse and Bullstrode is_ not _the mother of your children!" Harry yelled back._

 _"You are and I can't believe I ever slept with you, you stupid sodding so-called Savior. You may have saved your side, but you leave my children to suffer and force them to be raised in isolation by my mother. You make all those grand statements in the Prophet about healing the rift in our society, but all that is, is talk! You wouldn't be seen with me in the light of day if your life depended on it, yet you come in here when I'm asleep and expect sex. You are just as guilty of ostracizing Purebloods as the rest of them. It is people like you, taking fathers away from children like mine, who will be responsible for the next war. You are still the same stupid speccy scarhead from school. I wish the Dark Lord had killed you when you were a baby, just like he killed your Blood Traitor father."_

 _That was taking things too far and Harry lashed out with his right hook, punching Draco in the jaw. Draco cried out in pain and moved his arms to protect his face, so Harry shifted and began punching Draco in the ribs, blow after blow landing on the defenseless inmate._

 _Draco had no wand, was trapped in this cell, and had nowhere to run. Physically he was no match for the upper body strength of a trained Auror. His body sank to the ground and he didn't fight back. He kept his arms over his head, protecting his face, and did his best not to cry out in pain as he took the blows. He wasn't some weakling girl and he wasn't about to let Potter know how much he was being hurt. He still had his pride._

 _This wasn't the first time Harry had hit Draco. It wasn't even the first time he'd done it in a dream. They had a violent past filled with years of animosity from their shared time at Hogwarts. Draco knew how to push his buttons and could always goad him into a fight. This was the first time dream Draco had started the fight, though. The previous dream fights had been started by Harry, angry over the way Draco had left him and then suddenly come back, ruining his life. He'd eventually given in and let the sex dreams come, but not before letting his frustrations loose._

 _Then the inevitable happened: one of the punches produced a loud cracking sound and an ear-splitting shout of pain from Draco. Harry stopped instantly, fist in midair, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he suddenly realized what he was doing. In ordinary dreams, it wouldn't matter what he did, because everything would go back to normal when he woke. But these dreams were not normal and if he hurt Draco in one of them, the wizard would keep the injury for a length of time, appearing to heal gradually._

 _Quite a few times Harry had been too rough during sex and had then spent the next week worth of nights feeling awful about it. Anal sex would be out until Draco healed, but Harry would try to make up for hurting Draco with backrubs, blowjobs, and the like. It still ate Harry up inside every time he thought about it, which was why he was now so careful in his sex dreams and always used lots of lube._

 _Then there was the black eye Draco had received in one of Harry's angrier moments when Draco had returned after his second disappearance. The bruise had taken weeks to heal, changing colors as it slowly faded away._

 _The worst injury, by far, was the arm Harry had broken after the first time Draco had reappeared. Then too Harry had heard the snap and the scream and known instantly that he'd gone too far. Back then he didn't know it would take months to heal. Even more unexpected was the series of Muggle style casts Draco had worn, claiming that he'd had it treated by a Muggle doctor at a Muggle hospital. Draco Malfoy bypassing St. Mungo's in favor of Muggle healthcare was patently ridiculous. That was one of the major reasons Harry knew it was just a dream, because a Malfoy would never consent to letting a muggle treat a broken bone instead of a magical healer._

 _"Oh shite!" Harry exclaimed, pulling his fists back to his chest. He looked from Draco's crumpled form, down to his fists, and back to Draco in horror of what he'd done. He realized that his fists were still clenched and unclenched them. "Draco, are you okay? Of course you're not okay! What should I do?" Harry was panicking now._

Then the dream was over and Harry was wide awake in his bed, at home in Grimmauld Place. He was breathing rapidly, covered in sweat, and his fists still hurt from punching in his dream. For a moment he wondered if _his_ fists hurt this much, how much pain was Draco in. Then he brushed it away, reassuring himself that it was just a dream. There was no possible way the real Draco could be hurt. Dream Draco would probably have a broken rib in tomorrow night's dream, but Dream Draco was not the real thing. It didn't strike him odd that like the real Draco, Dream Draco was now in jail and had three mother-less children. His dreams always changed like that, incorporating into the dream whatever was new in the real Draco's life.

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Author's Note: So, um, what do you think of the fight? Up next will be the aftermath and we will get to see what happened to Draco, as well as finally get some revelations about what is going on.

Please Review!


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: I got a number of people asking about who is really the Incubus, Harry or Draco. I don't want to give too much away, but it might help to keep in mind that Draco is most definitely up to something…

I'd like to thank sghazalifard, cookyc, Katlovesboyxboy, and natsuki23 for the invaluable feedback!

* * *

First thing the next day, Harry made a detour over to the jail to pay Draco a visit. He told himself it was to give Draco a chance to come clean about the children and if Draco would just tell, then he'd find a way to have Draco released early. What Harry really wanted was to check on Draco and make sure the real Draco didn't suddenly have a broken rib. That was absurd, because what Harry did in his dreams to Dream Draco couldn't possibly affect the real Draco. But nonetheless, Harry felt the urge to check, so he went.

An Auror named Jones who Harry knew from his Auror days was at the front desk of the jail.

Harry approached and said, "Hey Jones. Just came to talk to Malfoy. Maybe a night in jail will make him more cooperative."

"Oh man! You haven't heard then?" Jones asked.

"Heard what? Has something happened to Malfoy?" Harry had an eerie feeling he knew what Jones was about to tell him.

"Oh yeah, what a night! Lake called me over swearing Malfoy was having a seizure or something! Lake went into the cell and tried to wake Malfoy up, but he wouldn't wake. Just when we were about to stun Malfoy and take him into hospital, he woke up screaming. Lake did stun him and take him into St. Mungo's then. Came back saying Malfoy has a broken rib and covered in bruises like he was beaten up or something. It's freaking unbelievable," Jones said.

Harry felt like he'd just been punched in the gut. His horrible dream had come true. The only thoughts he was clinging to at that moment were that it didn't make sense and that he had to see Malfoy. He turned away from Jones, heading back towards the front door, because apparition wasn't allowed within the jail.

"Hey, where are you going?" Jones called after Harry.

"To St. Mungo's, to see Malfoy," Harry answered.

"Of course. It's always Malfoy with you, Potter, isn't it?" Jones asked rhetorically.

Harry didn't answer. He just left. He apparated to London, outside St. Mungo's. Upon reaching the reception desk, he asked for Draco, who was on the secure ward, where prisoners were kept during treatment. Auror Stone was stationed outside the open door. A healer and a nurse could be seen through the door, the healer casting charms at the prone body on the bed and the nurse recording the results.

"Hullo Harry. You won't believe what's going on with Malfoy," Stone said by way of greeting.

"Yeah, Stone, what's going on?" Harry asked, still hopeful that there was a rational explanation for all of this.

"Malfoy's been attacked by an Incubus. Beat him up something terrible. Can you believe it? An Incubus actually attacked someone in custody at the Crouch Jail. Guess we know where those kids came from now, huh? I bet Malfoy was covering because being an incubi victim is beneath him," Stone answered.

Harry listened in shock, his mouth falling open. He probably should've replied or something, but he was speechless. He stood there staring at Stone like an idiot.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too at first, but you weren't there, you didn't see it. Lake told me it was like he was possessed!" Stone exclaimed.

Harry nodded, his mind reeling. Stone continued on, thinking Harry was still listening, recounting the details as they had been retold to Stone by Lake.

A few minutes later, the healer finished up with Malfoy and was on his way out of the room, when Harry intercepted him with a, "Healer, sir? Could I speak with you?"

The healer's head turned to see who was calling him. He recognized Harry and smiled. "Of course! Anything for Auror Potter!"

"Actually, I'm not an Auror anymore, just an MLE officer. I'm handling Malfoy's case," Harry explained.

"Oh yes, how tragic. So sorry you were injured. We could speak in my office," the healer offered.

Harry nodded and then followed the healer to an office at the end of the hall. The plaque on the desk read Healer Melbourne. Melbourne offered Harry a seat, before realizing he hadn't introduced himself properly and then proceeded to do just that. They shook hands and then Melbourne sat on the edge of his desk, Malfoy's file in hand.

"So I take it you need to know what's been happening with Lord Malfoy," Melbourne stated, opening the file.

"Yes, if you wouldn't mind. I do need to know for my investigation," Harry replied.

"Of course. Now let's see, it's most definitely an Incubus attack, that I am certain of. His body is full of scars and evidence of past abuse. Some of them date back to when he was still just a child, so I'd say the incubus has been visiting him for a very long time. Nearing on two decades."

Now that was something that didn't fit with Harry's dreams, which made him sigh in relief. He hadn't been dreaming about Draco for two decades, so he couldn't be the terrorizing Incubus. "Go on," he urged, pulling a notebook, quill, and ink from one of his pockets, so that he could write it all down.

"Well first of all, the Incubus you're looking for is a right sadistic bastard, I'd say. Malfoy's torso is covered in crisscrossing scars. They are poorly healed, as are most of the injuries, which means Malfoy most likely wasn't in the habit of seeking medical attention. I don't have access to his medical file mind you, but for someone to survive all of those cuts without having them healed properly, I'd say they must've happened over the course of several years. None of them are recent though, so the bastard must've grown tired of slicing him up."

"Are you, by chance, referring to Malfoy's Sectumsempra scars? I know they look awful, but that's because it's a dark curse and he's lucky they healed at all," Harry interjected.

"Sectumsempra? Are you telling me he was hit full in the chest with Sectumsempra and lived to tell? All those cuts? How is that possible?" Melbourne asked in astonishment. "A sectumsempra that strong would've been fatal."

"Professor Snape came in and saved him. It was Snape who invented the curse, so he knew the counter. We were at school and Snape happened upon the scene before it was too late," Harry explained.

"That's amazing. Do you know who cast it? Or could it have been cast in a dream?" Melbourne asked.

"I cast it and we were both definitely awake. One of my many mistakes; I didn't know what the curse did. We were fighting and it slipped out of my mouth. Then he was on the bathroom floor cut open and bleeding to death. Snape saved me from becoming a murderer that day."

Melbourne was silent a moment, before shaking his head. "Alright, so the slash scars are out, but there are still multiple other injuries, including the oldest one," he continued. Harry nodded for him to go on, quill in hand as he waited. "Besides the Sectumsempra, this one is probably the worst. The scar tissue is so deep and the bone was broken, but this injury is one of the few that were treated. I'd say it had to be treated, otherwise Malfoy was in danger of losing that arm."

Again this injury sounded familiar, another of the many Harry had witnessed during his school days. "A hippogriff slashed open his arm in third year. I don't suppose you are talking about that?" he asked.

"A hippogriff? Surely you must be joking."

"No, I'm afraid not."

"Well then, that explains away the oldest and worst of the injuries. I'll have to revise my opinion of the attacker. There are other old injuries, but it's hard to pinpoint the exact time they occurred. I'd say the other broken arm is most likely a good five or more years old," Melbourne said.

The pit in Harry's stomach seemed to grow then. Not only was Melbourne's revised estimate in line with the length of time Harry had been having the dreams, but he'd named one of the injuries Harry caused Dream Draco. "His other broken arm?" he repeated, fearing the worst.

"Yes, the other arm, and this time definitely untreated. It healed without any magic at all, although it did manage to heal straight. He won't need it vanished and regrown, but still, a bone like that takes a good two months to heal without magic. That a wizard would leave it untreated like that is unthinkable. Why would someone put themselves through all of that pain, unless they were threatened to keep quiet about the attacks? I don't know how the Incubus was forcing his silence, but the Incubus must've had something on him for him to keep quiet like that," Melborne replied.

"I don't know…" Harry couldn't for the life of him imagine why Draco would hide something like this from the world. If Harry really was an Incubus, and he now feared he was, then why would Draco cover for him? Draco was the victim and Harry was the one who had committed multiple crimes. The Draco he knew from school wouldn't hesitate to turn him in.

"I suspect it has something to do with the children. He probably didn't want anyone to know that his children were fathered by an Incubus. There is quite the stigma associated with it and the Purebloods are known for being particularly snooty when it comes to parentage," Melbourne supplied thoughtfully.

"What!? No. No, absolutely not; those children _cannot_ be Malfoy's by an Incubus. It was a witch. He told me, but he wouldn't tell me who," Harry said, grasping at straws. This was too much, because if he was the Incubus and the Incubus was the father, then that would make him the father of Malfoy's three children. That couldn't be true. That was what he wanted most, but he couldn't for a moment let his hopes up like that or it would kill him when he found out the truth.

"Maybe there was a witch with two of them, but the youngest was definitely from the Incubus. His body shows signs of having given birth," Melbourne insisted.

This was too much for Harry to process. His head started spinning with the implications that little Cori might be his daughter.

"Officer Potter, are you alright?" Melbourne asked, stepping forward and placing a concerned hand on Harry's shoulder.

"What?" Harry asked, refocusing on the healer and the office around him. He had to pull himself together, because this was not the time to fall apart.

"You look rather pale. Perhaps you should take some time off. Malfoy won't be going anywhere for a few days. You can unravel the case later."

"What about the Incubus?"

"We've put up an anti-Incubi ward around the room. No one will be able to invade his dreams while he's here. And like I said, we need to keep him in here for several days for observation. There is no sign that he had sex last night or that he's pregnant, but with an Incubus involved, we need to make sure before we release him."

"And his broken rib?" Harry asked, not wanting to think about the possibility that Malfoy could be pregnant. Normally he would flat out deny it, branding it absolutely impossible, but normally he would also say that the possibility that he was an Incubus terrorizing Draco was also zero. He had a negative test result proving that he was not an Incubus, for Merlin's sake! On the other hand, last night was the first time he'd dreamt of Draco in years and they hadn't had sex, so Draco being pregnant was impossible even in his dreams.

"Already healed. A little bit of magic goes a long way. He had bruises forming all over his face, arms, and chest, but a potion took care of those too. We have him sedated so that he can rest. Physically his injuries were rather simple to heal, but his mental injuries are another story."

"Right. Thanks. Um, er, I have to go," Harry said, standing up.

"If you're sure you're okay," Melbourne replied and Harry nodded that he was. "Alright then. I will owl your office with my final report and let the Auror on duty know when he can be released."

Harry nodded before leaving. He went back to his office, sat down at his desk, and got lost in his own thoughts for hours. He couldn't believe what was happening. It just didn't make sense. How could all of his dreams be true, when he had tested negative for being an Incubus? Was there some way he was seeing and experiencing the dreams induced by some other Incubus? That didn't make sense either, but he was grasping at straws and none of it made any sense.

There was work to do and other cases that needed Harry's attention, but he couldn't focus on any of it today. In the end he decided to go home early and drink his problems away. He just wanted to forget this entire day and all of the drama that was going on. He would have to deal with it soon, but for now he just wanted to forget it all.

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Author's Note: Now that Harry knows it's real, there won't be any more violence on his part. Up next will be another dream and an admission from Draco. Please Review!


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: I'd like to thank cookyc, sghazalifard, and natsuki23 for their encouraging feedback. Your words inspire me.

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 _Harry was having another dream. Draco was hunched up on the bed in the guarded hospital room that was supposed to be warded against Incubi. His knees were bent up against his chest with his arms wrapped around them and he was crying. Harry felt like he was right there with Draco as he cried._

 _Harry instinctively went to comfort Draco, sitting down on the bed and placing a hand on the familiar back. "You'll be okay. It's only a month," he said. Dream logic was telling Harry that the tears were about the children, not about his violent attack on Draco the night before._

 _"A month without my children and it's all your fault," Draco replied, voice hoarse and broken with sobs._

 _"My fault? All you had to do was tell the court who the other parent of your children is."_

 _"It's you, you idiot! I was protecting you! You're an unregistered Incubus and if they knew you've been carrying on with me for all these years you'd be sentenced to Azkaban. Not a month in that lame excuse for a jail, but the real thing for years. We have three children together, for Salazar's sake. I assumed that since you were playing dumb, you wanted me to play dumb too. Obviously you don't want to be seen with me and you don't want the world to know that I carried your baby within my body, not once, but three times. So you leave me holding the bag, as always. You are such an arse."_

 _Harry couldn't believe his ears. It was everything he'd been wanting to hear. But then, that's how dreams go, don't they? They grant you your wildest desires and snatch them all away come morning. "Three times? No, only Cori. You only told me about Cori. The others must be someone else's."_

 _"All three are yours, you stupid lump. I swear you must have no functioning brain cells left. It's a wonder you manage to breathe."_

 _"Why didn't you tell me?" Harry asked._

 _"I_ did _tell you, when I was pregnant with Corona. I hoped that you'd come find me and that we'd become a real family. Obviously I was deluded, because you never came. And when you did come, you locked me in jail and threatened to take our children away from me. What's your plan? Wait until I get them taken away and then step in and adopt them? Then you'll look like the hero, instead of the monster you are."_

 _"No, I didn't know. It was all a dream. You have to believe me."_

 _"It's all a dream for me too, but I'm the one with the sore bottom afterwards. It's me who turns up pregnant and has to take care of the baby. You can't ever just visit me in person so that we can use protection; you have to get me pregnant every time. And now you're probably going to bugger me in here and I'll be stuck in that cell, pregnant with your forth child for an entire month. I'm not going to hide it this time: I'm going to report you. I'm going to tell everyone what you've done to me."_

 _"No, I'm sorry. I don't want to have sex with you unless you want it."_

 _"You know what's really fucked up Potter?"_

 _"No, what?"_

 _"I do want it. These dreams are the only times I ever have sex. It's kind of hard to carry on a real relationship when I don't know when you're coming back."_

 _"I'm sorry, I didn't know. I love you. We can have sex in real life too; I'll be your first," Harry promised, dream logic telling him Draco was a virgin._

 _"But I won't be yours. I've seen the papers; you've been dating half the wizarding world while I've been home taking care of your children."_

 _"I didn't know it was real; I thought it was only in my dreams. I had myself tested; the healer said I'm not an Incubus, so how could this be real?"_

 _"Maybe you had an abnormal test result, but I have three children that prove that you very much_ are _an Incubus."_

 _"You said they were Millicent's, not mine."_

 _"I lied, as you very well know. Isn't it obvious? Cori looks just like you. I thought you'd want her, since she's a Succubus. Nysus and Scorp are human like me, so of course you wouldn't want them. They say that an Incubus won't be able to resist claiming a child with the infection; obviously that isn't true in your case. Saint Potter can resist anything, even adorable little babies."_

 _"She's a Succubus? That's what I sensed about her?"_

 _"Yes and you still didn't want her."_

 _"I_ did _want her, so much. You have no idea how much I wanted her. I was so jealous of Millicent Bulstrode when you first told me, because I wanted Cori to be mine, just like in my dreams."_

 _"Then claim her. Claim us. Submit yourself for a paternity test and get me released from here."_

 _"You'd want that?"_

 _"Yes."_

 _"And you won't push me away come the morning?"_

 _"No. You were always the one who pushed me away. I'd start getting fat and you'd stop visiting me. I was so confused at first when you kept visiting me with Cori, but then I realized that she's like you. She was calling to you, pulling at you, trying to stop you from abandoning us. It worked for a time, but then not even my precious Cori could keep you bonded to us. You left again."_

 _"No, I don't know how to control it. I go to sleep and you're either there or you're not. You'd be here every night if I had my way."_

 _"And my arse would be filled with your spunk and buggered so good I cannot sit. Yes, I know exactly how it'd be if you had your way. It's all about sex with you Incubi. You can't ever just have a regular conversation."_

 _"We're having one now."_

 _"I don't know why. I keep thinking that any second now you're going to pounce on me."_

 _"I want to," Harry admitted._

 _"What is stopping you?"_

 _"You haven't told me it's alright."_

 _"It's not. I don't want any more children; three is enough."_

 _"Okay. I'll come to you in the day and we can do it with protection." Harry waited for a response, but all he got was a nod, so he continued. "I love you. Do you love me?"_

 _"Yes," Draco whispered under his breath._

 _Harry leaned in and they kissed. It was a soft, sweet kiss, and then it was over and he was being whisked away on a magical cloud, back to his own bed._

Harry sat bolt upright in his bed, gasping for breath. How had he managed to invade Draco's dreams yet again? Wasn't Draco supposed to be in hospital protected behind anti-Incubi wards? Even if he was an Incubus, he shouldn't have been able to get to Draco. But then his life had never been normal before, so why would it start obeying logic now? More importantly, could it really be true? Could he be an Incubus after all? Could Draco and the children be his, just waiting for him to claim? It was the middle of the night, so he couldn't do anything about it now, but come morning, he was going straight to Malfoy Manor to conduct a paternity test.

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Author's Note: Now that Harry knows, he'll be getting Draco out of jail next chapter. And once Draco is out, he has a big revelation to make…

Please Review!


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: I'd like to thank Scarlet daydreamer, sghazalifard, for the wonderful reviews!

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Narcissa Malfoy greeted Harry with an accusatory stare when he showed up at the Manor the next day. But, she did let him in and she didn't protest when he asked for hair samples for his paternity tests. Maybe she thought the tears in the children's eyes and their sobs were punishment enough. Harry's heart certainly broke just a little bit more witnessing their pain. It was his fault the only parent they'd ever known was locked up. And to make matters worse, he'd beaten Draco and landed the wizard in St. Mungo's.

"You're not a hero Mr. Potter. You're a monster," Scorpius accused, pushing his glasses up a little higher on his nose.

"You stole Father. You should be sent to Azkaban," Nysus added boldly, kicking Harry in the shin.

"Nysus, you shouldn't kick Mr. Potter," Narcissa Malfoy said, but didn't sound particularly stern about it.

"I don't care! He's awful! Father always says what a wonderful wizard he is, but he's not! I hate him! I wish he were dead," Nysus ranted angrily.

"Me too," Scorpius added sadly. "I want my father back."

"I'm going to see him today and try to get him out of there," Harry said.

Dionysus and Scorpius weren't impressed by Harry's promise. They just stalked away up the stairs leaving him there with their sister and grandmother.

Corona simply screamed at Harry and looked at him accusingly.

Needless to say Harry felt horrible after that. He felt like he was two inches tall and the worst person in the world. But he had a mission to do, so he didn't have time to break down. Instead he apparated to St. Mungo's and formally requested a hair sample from Draco Malfoy for the maternity tests. The Auror on guard duty was surprised that Harry had found out who the Incubus was already. At first the Auror had been certain Harry was just testing some known problem causing Incubus, refusing to believe that Draco had cracked and finally given up a name. When Harry insisted that Draco had, the Auror laughed, insisting that Draco was pulling Harry's leg and that was without Harry telling them who the Incubus was. No one would ever believe that the Incubus was Harry himself.

"It would be just like Malfoy to send you all over town wasting time and resources testing dozens of Incubi," the Auror said.

"We'll see," Harry replied.

Harry held his breath as he was let into Draco's hospital room. He was supposed to be collecting a hair sample, but what he wanted to do was run to Draco and hold him. Draco was sitting on his bed like he was in Harry's dream, looking forlorn and dejected. Then Draco looked up at Harry with hard grey eyes, daring Harry to act, to break the cycle. Draco was leaving it up to Harry to acknowledge the dreams for reality.

"Draco, I came, just as I promised I would," Harry said, stepping forward.

"Are you getting me out of here?" Draco asked hopefully.

"Soon. I need three hairs from you to perform the tests. If they are positive, I'll talk to the Warlock and get this sorted."

Draco looked away from Harry then, refusing to make eye contact for the rest of the visit, but did allow Harry to pluck out three hairs.

Harry took his sample and reluctantly left Draco there. He went back to the lab in the Child-Welfare Division in the Ministry. Since there weren't all that many types of tests they had to do in their line of work, the place was stockpiled with paternity potions and all of the necessary equipment for the task. He hadn't been on the job long, so he had to read through the instructions that were Spello-taped to the desk and follow along as he did each step. But the procedure was straight forward and an hour later he was looking at three sheets of paper.

 _Corona Arora Malfoy_

 _Mother- Draco Lucius Malfoy_

 _Father- Harry James Potter_

 _Dionysus Regulus Malfoy_

 _Mother- Draco Lucius Malfoy_

 _Father- Harry James Potter_

 _Scorpius Koios Malfoy_

 _Mother- Draco Lucius Malfoy_

 _Father- Harry James Potter_

Harry let out the breath he'd been holding in a gasp as he read them. All three children were his. Apparently dream Draco hadn't been lying and Harry was an Incubus all along. He felt light headed and had to sit down for several minutes while he processed this information. On the plus side, he had the children he'd always wanted. On the other side, his children hated him and Draco was in hospital under Auror custody because of him. He had to fix this and set things right. The only way to do that was to get Draco out of jail.

Focusing on the task ahead of him, Harry stood and went over to the filing cabinet to retrieve a different procedure sheet; one that wasn't often needed. On the top of the page was the serial number of the required potion, which he obtained from the storeroom. He then set about testing himself for the Incubi virus. He was certain that the last test had been a false negative and that this test would come back positive. When this test came back negative as well, he was confused. In the end though, it didn't really matter what the test said, because the paternity test said otherwise. Obviously he was an Incubus, but for whatever reason was testing negative and immune to standard Incubi-wards. Maybe he had a mutation or was low on some vitamin, screwing up the results. Whatever the case, he had to get Draco released.

Rushing back to his desk, Harry set about putting the tests results into Draco's file and filling out the appropriate forms. This would all have to be documented if he was going to get Draco released by the book. When he finished, he dropped the file off with his boss for review and went in search of someone to hear the case today. He could simply put Draco's name down on the docket and the case would be assigned the next open timeslot, probably sometime next week. But he couldn't let Draco sit in jail on top of the two days now that Draco had been in hospital, so he grabbed his golf clubs and went out to the Ministry golf course.

The golf course was for the higher ups in the Ministry and Harry only had access to it, because he was the Savior of the Wizarding World. Personally he didn't find golf the least bit appealing, but he'd learned over the years the advantages the sport provided. When he wanted something and wanted it fast, the people in charge were always at the golf course. He knew for a fact that many of the members of the Wizengamot spent their breaks and days off down there.

The members of the Wizengamot could be easily recognized by their plum colored robes. Harry spotted a group of wizards wearing the appropriate color and took off in their direction. He had to join in and play a round of golf, which was a colossal waste of time, but he got Warlock Binns to agree to take the case, even though it was Binns' day off. He lost the game miserably, mostly because he didn't care, and rushed off back to St. Mungo's, to see about getting Draco discharged for the impromptu court session.

Draco requested his lawyer, Mr. Larton, so Harry had to floo out to notify the councilman that his services were being requested. Draco also advised Harry that he needed a lawyer as well, given the crime he was about to admit to. Harry didn't have time to find his own lawyer, so he asked Draco's lawyer to take the case. It was short notice, but Mr. Larton already knew most of the pertinent facts, so it didn't take Harry long to fill him in with everything else that he needed to know. That was a good thing too, because Warlock Binns should be back from his golf session any minute.

Harry and Larton flooed back to the Ministry. Harry made a detour in the direction of his department to retrieve the case file from his boss, who was not at all pleased by the update. Meanwhile Mr. Larton went down to the designated courtroom without him. The Aurors were already waiting with Draco. Mr. Larton used the next few minutes to consort with his client, but that was cut short by the arrival of Warlock Binns. Binns called the court to order, just as Harry slipped into the room.

"Mister Potter, please step forward and present your new evidence in this matter,"

Warlock Binns requested.

Harry came forward with the case file, which Binns then read through.

"You are aware, Mister Potter, that this form implicates you as an unregistered Incubus. Furthermore, since the oldest child in question is ten years old, it implies that you have been terrorizing the wizarding public for over a decade. What do you have to say for yourself?" Binns asked.

"Sir, I wasn't aware that I was one. I had myself tested before, because I thought I was, but it was negative. The healer told me it was all in my head and I believed him. I did another test just today and it was negative as well," Harry said, producing the paper with the negative result.

"In that case, it is my recommendation that leniency be granted to Mister Potter. He will be required to attend weekly counseling sessions until his condition is adequately under control and managed appropriately. Lord Malfoy, as the victim, will be released from custody immediately. Next time, Lord Malfoy, I suggest you cooperate with the authorities. Although, I _can_ see why you felt uncomfortable coming forward since it was your attacker questioning you. I hereby grant your request to change case workers and dismiss all charges against you. This hearing is adjourned," Binns said, before rapping the desk with his gavel.

Then it was over, the warlocks, Aurors, and even the attorney filed out the door, leaving just Harry and Draco. Harry felt the way he had back in fourth year when he tried to ask Cho Chang to the Yule Ball. His stomach twisted and turned so violently he worried he was going to be sick. His nerves were only worsened by the fact that Draco wouldn't make eye contact with him. Draco remained seated in the defendant chair, looking down at his hands in his lap.

After far too much silence had elapsed, Harry bucked up the courage and asked, "Draco?" Draco looked up then and his grey eyes met Harry's green ones. "I still love you. Will you ever forgive me?"

"It is not my forgiveness you need, but that of your children," Draco replied coldly, his mask up to guard against rejection. After all of this time of having a relationship with Harry only in his dreams, he still couldn't believe that it was finally spilling over into his waking life.

"Can I meet them?"

"You already have."

"I mean, as their father."

"I am their father."

"Then what am I?"

"Whatever you want to be, just so long as you aren't the father, grandmother, or grandfather. I supposed you could be the uncle, as long as you don't pretend to be my brother; that would be rather gross."

"Could I be the dad?" Harry asked.

"It's rather plebian, but it could work."

"Great."

"Then it's settled. Would you care to go for a walk?" Draco asked, extending the tendril of possibility for the first time.

"Yes," Harry gasped out automatically. "More than anything. Where?"

"I've always wanted to show you Malfoy Forest. It surrounds Malfoy Manor and is magnificent," Draco offered and Harry agreed.

They apparated to Malfoy Manor, but instead of going inside, Draco led them away, into the forest. There was a path cut through the trees and the two wizards walked in companionable silence for a time until Harry worked up the courage to ask, "What about us?"

"I don't know. What about us Potter?" Draco asked, stopping to look Harry in the eye.

"Could I see you sometime?"

"You're seeing me now."

"I mean on a date. A proper one, not one in our dreams." This was rather presumptuous of Harry, given that he'd been victimizing Draco for over a decade and beaten Draco just two nights before. Draco hadn't mentioned the beating and as long as he didn't, Harry wasn't going to open that can of worms either.

"You aren't going to want to once you have your appointment for your Incubus counseling."

"Why not?"

"If I tell you, you're never going to forgive me. You'll be right back to hating me. All of those dreams and our three children won't count for shite when it comes to changing that." It wasn't like Draco to go the honest route, but he'd known that Harry would find out the whole truth if ever Harry found out the children were real. Malfoys were always on the winning side and since his side was sinking fast, it was time to jump ship.

"No," Harry denied. "I won't. Why would you say something like that?"

"Because I lied to you and any counselor who knows their arse from their face will know that."

"What do you mean? You couldn't have faked the paternity tests."

"If I tell you, you have to promise not to take it out on the children. This is my fault, not theirs. They don't know and they aren't going to understand."

"I promise, Draco, please tell me."

"The paternity tests no, I didn't fake, but you aren't the Incubus… I am. They warded me against attack in that hospital room, but that didn't stop me from visiting you."

"How is that possible? I didn't get pregnant, you did."

"Because I bottomed. I was tired of having my babies aborted. The last time the witch couldn't abort, because the baby had the Incubus gene, so she smothered my son shortly after birth. This way, you couldn't get pregnant and kill my baby. I didn't know that I'd end up pregnant."

"Why did you lie? Why did you hide? Why didn't you just tell me?"

"My pride for one. For two it would cause trouble for my parents, having to explain where I got the Incubus gene from. And lastly I can't stand the treatment."

"Who did you get it from?"

"My mother. She's unregistered, but married and she takes her suppressant potion regularly."

"Do you take it?"

"I tried, but it makes me feel dead inside. Please don't tell them it's me; I think I'd kill myself if I had to go back on that awful stuff."

"But Draco, without the potion you won't be able to help yourself from visiting witches and wizards in their sleep!"

"Sometimes I can. When I can't, I visit you."

"You meant it then? You never visit anyone else?" Harry asked, remembering what Draco had told him the night before.

"Ever since we made Scorp, it's been just you. Before that, there were others. They were witches, because I couldn't risk a male pregnancy being reported, even though I preferred wizards. And they were always far away; I chose witches I didn't know, so that they wouldn't be able to link it back to me. It was during the war and I just couldn't walk into St Mungo's and get help. Snape brewed me the suppressant potion, but I couldn't function when I was on it. At first, it felt like I was a zombie and nothing at all mattered. I've gotten a little used to it with time, but it's still bad."

"You're going be found out soon. You'll have to get back on the suppressant potion."

"Not if you lie for me."

"But Draco, you said yourself, any healer who knows their arse from their face will know."

"Then we find one who doesn't."

"How are we going to find a healer that stupid?"

"Gregory Goyle is a healer now, did you know?"

"Goyle? No way. He'd never be able to pass the tests."

"He didn't have to. He has an uncle who helped him cheat. If you'd consent to see him, then no one would ever know."

"I'll have to think about it." After a moment's pause, Harry asked, "May I see the children?"

"Yes, but I need to see them first. I need to explain. They won't understand, but I need to try." There was pleading in Draco's voice. "They're great children, really. They remind me of you so much."

Harry smiled at that. Personally, the children reminded him of Draco.

They agreed to part then, so that Harry could think and Draco could talk to the children. They'd owl tomorrow and possibly meet up to continue the discussion.

* * *

Author's Note: Is it weird that Draco just came out and told the truth? I wanted to drag it out and make Harry catch Draco in the lie, but I couldn't find a way to write it that way and still have Harry and Draco end up together, instead of it ending up with Harry hating Draco… What do you think?

Draco's cards are finally on the table; now to find out if Harry can live with a lie for the sake of the children. Please Review!


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: I'd like to thank natsuki23 for being the only one to review the previous chapter!

* * *

Harry thought about what Draco was asking of him. There were a number of things to consider, most importantly the children. If what Draco said was true, the children would suffer from Draco being found out as an Incubus. If the treatment potion turned Draco into a zombie, as he claimed, then he wouldn't be able to take care of the kids and they would wonder what was wrong with him. Or if Draco was lying to get out of taking the potion, then he'd probably keep refusing to take it and would end up back in jail, upsetting the children further.

On the other hand, Incubi were a public concern. If left untreated, they would drift into dreams of normal people, have sex with them and impregnate them. Many women, especially Muggles, never realized that they'd been victimized by a dark being, because they assumed it was all just a dream and that the baby was their husband's or boyfriend's. Because of this, the punishment was especially high for those Incubi who crossed the magical boundary and victimized Muggles. If Harry let Draco get away with victimizing other people, then he was as bad as an Incubus himself.

In the end, it came down to two questions: Was Draco telling the truth about the Incubus potion turning him into a zombie? And just how capable was he of controlling his Incubi urges? If he really was turned into a zombie and could legitimately limit himself to only rarely invading Harry's dreams and never victimizing anyone else, then for the sake of the children, Harry thought he should cover for Draco and let him continue on the way things were. But first, Harry had to be sure.

The next day Draco sent an owl.

 _-Harry_

 _I have spoken to the children. I didn't tell them everything, including the fact that you are their other parent, but I did tell them that the situation isn't your fault and that you are my friend. I think this would go best if we introduce you to them gradually; get them used to you and liking you before we tell them. If you are available, we will be free to meet with you this afternoon. We could have tea._

 _-Sincerely Draco Malfoy_

Harry jumped at the chance, sending the owl back with his affirmative response. He was anxious all day and couldn't wait for the hours to tick by. But he had work to do and couldn't take the entire day off, so he forced himself to do it. He kept busy with his other cases, mostly filling out paperwork.

When it was time, with jittery, frazzled nerves Harry apparated to Malfoy Manor and knocked on the door. An elf was there to let him in, leading him into the drawing room, where Draco, the children, and a tea service were waiting.

"Ah Harry, so good of you to join us," Draco said, walking over to Harry with Cori on his hip. He placed his free hand on Harry's shoulder and turned to the boys. "Children, I'd like to introduce you to my good friend Harry."

"He's not your friend! He's a monster!" Nysus accused boldly.

"No Nysus, remember, we talked about this. Harry was just doing his job. It was my fault for not following legal procedure. We've cleared everything up so it's all better. Now that is not how we greet guests, so would you care to try again young man?" Draco asked sternly.

"No," Nysus said, his bottom lip pouting out.

"Scorpius?" Draco asked, looking to his oldest son.

"How do you do, Mister Potter?" Scorpius asked, holding out his hand properly. He was trying to school the emotions on his face, but Harry could tell he wasn't convinced of Harry's turn around.

"Very well, thank you," Harry replied awkwardly, shaking Scorp's hand. As the Savior of the Wizarding World, he'd been to enough formal balls to pick up a bit of the formal etiquette, so he knew this was the appropriate response. It just felt so weird to be greeting his son thusly, when what he really wanted to do was take the boy into a giant hug and never let the boy go.

"Shall we sit down for tea and elf-made biscuits?" Draco asked, motioning towards the table and the tea service.

Harry nodded and moved towards the table. He stood awkwardly, wondering where he should sit, when Draco pulled out a chair for him. He sat, feeling like something was out of place with Draco treating him like a witch. Draco put Cori in a seat two chairs away and then sat in the middle, leaving the two chairs on Harry's other side open for the boys. Nysus jumped to sit next to Cori and Scorp reluctantly took the seat next to Harry, scooting his chair closer to his brother in order to gain distance between himself and Harry.

"Well this is nice, isn't it?" Draco asked, picking up the tea pot and pouring for all.

Cori nodded happily, munching on a biscuit she'd managed to snag. Nysus looked up from his plate, which he was piling high with biscuits, his facial expression a mix of incredulousness at the absurdity of the question and guilt over the number of biscuits he was taking. Scorp gave a curt nod and helped himself to a few biscuits of his own.

"Thank you for inviting me Draco. It was very kind of you," Harry replied.

"Oh it was nothing. You are an old friend and I thought it would be good to reconnect. You should come over for tea more often," Draco replied.

Nysus shot Harry a scathing look, as if daring Harry to agree with his father's statement.

"I'd love to," Harry replied. "And I thought we might have a private chat afterwards."

"Certainly," Draco said, completing his task by finally pouring his own tea. He added sugar and cream, before turning to Scorpius. "Scorp, how were your lessons this morning?"

"Excellent Father. Madam Lestrange says my Latin is improving," Scorp replied.

"Wonderful. Good job, son. And Nysus?" Draco asked.

"Madam Lestrange is a tosser," Nysus grumbled under his breath.

"What did you say Dionysus?" Draco asked pointedly, implying that Nysus best change his tune.

"Nothing. Er, ah?" Nysus struggled with a polite way to describe his day without admitting that the tutor was not nearly as approving of his skills as she was of his brother's.

"Did you pass your Latin test today?" Draco asked.

"Er, no…" Nysus admitted. "But I don't see why I need to learn bloody Latin! Why can't I learn something else? Something useful or interesting."

"We have spoken about this before Nysus: Latin is at the base of verbal magic. It is the common tongue of all magical people. If you wish to be a wizard one day, Latin will be of the utmost importance," Draco answered, before turning sterner. "And I would thank you not to use that language in front of your sister and our company. Next time I will have no choice but to send you to your room."

"Fine," Nysus grumbled, slouching down in his seat.

"Madam Lestrange?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The late Rabastan Lestrange's wife. He left her with two young children to raise by herself when he died during the second war. She is qualified, family, and needs the employment," Draco explained.

"But is she…?" Harry trailed off, not wanting to ask if the witch was a Death Eater or a Death Eater supporter in front of his children, but still wanting to know.

"No, she did not approve of her late husband's actions. It was an arranged marriage and she had little choice in the matter," Draco answered.

"Good." Harry let out a sigh of relief to know that his children weren't being educated by a Death Eater.

"And Cori? What did you learn from Madam Hoarfrost today?" Draco asked.

"One, two, three, four, five!" Cori counted on her fingers, holding them up for Draco to see, a wide smile on her face.

"Very good, Cori. Well done," Draco replied.

"Good job," Harry added awkwardly, not knowing if he was allowed to converse with the children.

"Cori is a wiz with maths, Harry. Scorp is very bright as well. And Nysus receives top marks in trouble making, mischievousness, and all manner of skills needed in an Auror," Draco said.

"Wonderful. Are you interested in becoming an Auror, Nysus?" Harry asked.

"No. Why would I want to be like you?" Nysus asked petulantly.

"You know I'm not an Auror anymore, don't you Nysus? I'm a case worker for the MLE Child Welfare Unit," Harry replied.

"But you were an Auror. You murdered You-Know-Who," Nysus said accusingly, like it was a bad thing.

Harry looked at Draco questioningly, wondering what Draco had been telling their children. "Don't look at me. I haven't filled his head with this nonsense," Draco told Harry, before turning to his son. "Dionysus, the Dark Lord wasn't murdered, he was killed by his own Killing Curse rebounding on him. He brought about his own death and Harry only helped him along his way. It was a very courageous and praise worthy action. Now I would like to know who told you it was murder."

"The portrait…" Nysus replied, biting his bottom lip.

" _Which_ portrait?" Draco asked.

"The one of Great Auntie Bellatrix," Nysus answered.

"The one in the forbidden portrait room full of all of our most awful and vial ancestors whom I have _expressly_ forbidden you from visiting on _multiple_ occasions?" Draco asked and Nysus nodded. "And how did you get in?"

"I wanted in and your wards broke for me," Nysus answered.

"Does he remind you of anyone you know Harry?" Draco asked pointedly, implying that Nysus' behavior was entirely Harry's fault.

"Er, yes?" Harry asked, unsure if he was suddenly in trouble, when it was Nysus who had apparently broken into the illicit portrait room, not him.

"And who might that be?" Draco asked.

"Well my friends and I used to get into a fair bit of trouble, but really Nysus sounds just like my dad, James Potter. He and his friends used to sneak out at night and explore Hogwarts," Harry answered.

"No way! I don't believe you!" Nysus screamed, rising from the table.

"Dionysus, this is not appropriate behavior. Please sit down and speak calmly," Draco chastised.

"No. He's a liar and a monster and I'm going to my room," Nysus insisted, before running off.

Draco let Nysus go with a sigh.

"What was he so upset about?" Harry asked.

"Having something in common with the Boy-Who-Lived. I tried telling him earlier that he's just like you. Breaking into a protected room full of awful portraits just because he knows he's not supposed to is such a Potter thing to do I think I should've named him after you," Draco answered.

"I've always wanted a son named James, but I suppose it would be just as good to have one with my father's personality," Harry replied.

"Father, I don't understand," Scorpius interjected.

"Oh, it's nothing Scorp. Mister Potter is just admiring your brother," Draco replied.

"You and Cori are great too," Harry added, not wanting his oldest son to feel left out.

"Well Harry, should I call up Nanny Crabbe to see to the children while we go outside? I was thinking of showing you the gardens," Draco said.

"Nanny Crabbe?" Harry asked.

"Vincent Crabbe's older sister, Rillette. She needed the job," Draco answered with a shrug. "Well shall we?"

"Yes," Harry answered, although he hated for the meeting with his children to end. He wanted so much to hold sweet little Cori and hug Scorp.

Draco called an elf, who summoned a large young witch with a striking resemblance to the late Vincent Crabbe. Cori and Scorp went off with her and then Draco led Harry outside, into the gardens. The gardens were filled with beautiful blooming white and dark red roses. Harry took in the beauty as they started down the path.

"Harry, I am so sorry for Nysus' behavior. He's stubborn and pigheaded. He was always going to take this the worst," Draco said, holding out his hand for Harry to take.

Harry took Draco's hand. Holding hands, they continued down the path. "Like me," he said.

"Yes, I'm afraid he is. Scorp is more like me."

"And Cori?"

"She is little yet. She seems inordinately shy for a Malfoy. Is that a trait that runs in your family?"

"I don't rightly know," Harry admitted.

They walked on and the roses shifted to yellow flowers, daffodils and daisies.

"Harry, I wanted to ask you: have you had enough time to think about it? Will you see Greg Goyle for your healer?" Draco asked.

"The thing is Draco, this is a bit sudden for me. I'm afraid I need more proof to be convinced."

"Proof?"

"That you cannot tolerate the suppressant potion. Now I'm not saying you have to stay on it, but I would like you to take one dose in front of me to demonstrate the side effects."

Draco became distressed just at the thought. His breathing quickened, his eyes went wide, and he slowed down, free hand clutched to his chest.

"Draco, are you alright?" Harry asked concerned. "It will be just the one dose. I'll be there to make sure nothing bad happens to you."

"It's not that; it's the children," Draco said in between gasping breaths, looking deep into Harry's eyes, imploring Harry to understand.

"You don't want them to see you on it?"

"No. It would worry them."

"Then can we arrange for your mum or the nanny to watch them?" Harry asked and Draco nodded. "Good. I'd like to do it soon. I'm expected to report to my healer right away.

"I could set it up for tonight. I'll ask Nanny Crabbe to pass the children off to their tutors in the morning and make sure my mother is around. It might just wear off in time for dinner tomorrow."

"Alright. I should probably go and come back later then?"

"Yes, I'd like to have dinner with the children. I'll tell them I have a meeting tomorrow. I don't want them to worry."

They were silent for a few minutes, Harry not wanting to leave and Draco not wanting to make him go. "Have you thought about how…ah, our relationship, er, will work?" Harry asked. "If you're not on the suppressant potion, I mean."

"Yes. I want to give having sex with you while I'm awake a try. I've read that mated Incubi can avoid the need to inhabit dreams. My mother said that until my father was sent to Azkaban, she hadn't invaded his dreams in a decade."

"Mated, as in married?" Harry's breathing picked up in his excitement, his chest filling with hope.

"Essentially. There is a special magical ceremony for Incubi. It's permanent."

"Permanent? As in no divorce, ever?"

"Yes. Is that, er, something you would be willing to consider?" Draco asked, looking down at the dirt ground and refusing to make eye contact.

"Yes," Harry answered breathily, his chest swelling with excitement over the prospect. To be Draco's forever sounded absolutely wonderful right about now, especially after all of these years of thinking he could never have Draco.

"Really?" Draco asked, finally looking up and making eye contact. There was a note of disbelief in his voice. He'd lied and kept their children from Harry and it was hard to believe he could be forgiven so easily.

"Really." Harry had always been quick to forgive. Arguably too quick, but he didn't care. He wanted Draco and he didn't want to dwell on what Draco had done.

"May I kiss you?"

"Oh yes." Harry barely got the words out before Draco was leaning forward and joining their lips passionately. Harry opened his mouth and Draco's tongue darted in, deepening the kiss.

When they finally broke apart, gasping for air, Draco pulled back slightly and looked into Harry's eyes. "I may need to, um, be with you soon. The urges tend to intensify after, er, the potion," Draco said less fluently than usual, to which Harry simply nodded his agreement.

Draco crashed his lips back into Harry's and initiated another intense snogging session, in which their lips molded together. There was no tongue this time and it was cut short, with the sense that this meeting had to end shortly. Their lips pulled apart, with a lingering tingle.

"You should go. I need to arrange tonight. Be back here by eight?" Draco asked.

Harry, his fingers pressed softly against his bottom lip, still in a snog induced fog, nodded.

Draco gave one last curt nod, parted their bodies, releasing Harry's hand, and apparated away, presumably into the house.

Harry stood there in stunned silence a moment more, before disapparating away himself.

* * *

Author's Note: I think the meeting with the children went about as well as could be expected. What do you think? Up next we will see what happens when Draco takes the potion.

Please Review!


	7. Chapter 7

Harry owled his work with a request to take the next day off, citing his need to comply with the court order against him in the Malfoy case. He implied he was taking the day to see a healer and arrange counseling sessions, figuring that when he returned he'd say he spent the day looking for and researching healers, wanting to find the right one to help him with his condition.

At eight O'clock at night on the dot, Harry apparated to Malfoy Manor and knocked. An elf answered the door and led him upstairs. He'd never been upstairs before and tried to take it all in. He was taken to the third floor and led into a suite of rooms that looked like something found in a posh hotel. The outer room was a sitting room complete with a bar, but there was an open door revealing a bed within and several additional closed doors.

Draco was there, sitting on a sofa with a drink in hand. He stood up when Harry arrived and offered Harry a drink, which Harry declined. "So I guess we should start then?" he asked apprehensively.

"Yes. Do you have the potion? I forgot to ask…" Harry replied.

"Yes, we always have some. I like to feel I have it in case my desires get out of hand. It helps me to squelch them, knowing what the alternative is if I don't."

"Where is it?"

Draco sighed and asked, "Must we really go through with this?" Harry nodded, so he summoned an elf, who provided the potion. He drank it quickly, but held onto the vial and was slow to react afterwards.

"Draco, are you okay?" Harry asked.

It took Draco a minute to respond, slowly moving his head to look blankly at Harry. He didn't say anything or even nod or shake his head. Instead he shrugged slowly. The potion was quick to take effect.

"Can you talk?" Harry asked, but received only further blank stares. "Do you want to go to bed?" Draco looked for all the world like he didn't understand the question or even how to communicate such. "Right, I'll just put you to bed, shall I?"

When Draco failed to respond again, Harry pulled him up and led him into the bedroom. Harry changed Draco into a pair of pajamas he found on the bed and then encouraged Draco to sit on the bed. Harry assumed Draco would at least be able to put himself to sleep, but Draco continued to sit there like a brainless zombie. Harry ended up pushing Draco down, ordering him to close his eyes, and spelling off the lights.

Harry went out to the sofa to lie down. It was early yet and he couldn't get to sleep, so he lay there thinking about his day; tea with Draco and his children and the conversation with Draco afterwards. He kept coming back to the proposed permanent mating Draco had suggested. Draco hadn't given him many details, but he _needed_ to know more. Eventually it occurred to him that Draco must have a book on it and there were several large bookcases in the room. Thus he decided to look through Draco's books.

There were dozens of books on Incubi, but none of them from the usual victim perspective focusing on how to recognize the creature, prevent attacks, and ward off further attacks. These books were on how to live and cope with the virus, without letting it ruin your life and the lives of others. There was one crisp new-looking book on the suppressant potion, with one bookmark towards the end. Harry flipped to the marked page, which contained a very long section on possible side effects, one of which was underlined.

 _In rare cases, the suppressant potion can cause a zombie-like effect, in which the individual feels like they are buried under an impenetrable cloud, preventing them from interacting with reality. They are slow to respond, especially when first taking the potion, but often improve as the concentration of suppressant in their system decreases. Occasionally this side effect wears off over time, but if it doesn't, there is no known counter. Often sufferers chose to go off of the potion and risk the legal consequences instead of enduring in the fog._

That was all that section in the book said about Draco's side effect, which wasn't particularly helpful, although it did confirm what Draco had told Harry already. Reading about side effects was interesting, but it wasn't what Harry really wanted to know. He needed to know about the mating, so he used one of Hermione's location spells, making several books light up and one positively glow. He picked up the glowing book and started reading.

The entire book was on Incubi and their mates, including the permanent mating ceremony. A mated Incubus was strictly monogamous and absolutely incapable of sexual encounters with anyone other than their mate. The mate had more free will and choice, but cheating by the mate would deeply wound an Incubus and prolonged cheating could lead to death of the Incubus. The Incubus feeds off of the mate bond as the sole source to satisfy the virus induced sexual desires. Without a sufficient amount of stimulation, the virus is liable to take over and that could mean anything from insanity to death. There was no cure, which was why it was so important to be careful in choosing a mate; essentially the Incubus was choosing to put their life in someone else's hands.

Draco had asked Harry to be his mate, which meant he was willing to put his life in Harry's hands. That meant a lot to Harry and made him want to go through with the process all the more. There was virtually no effect on the mate, besides having a clingy and needy Incubus dependent on them. The Incubus might die without the mate, but the mate wouldn't die without the Incubus. The only real concern for the mate of an Incubus was pregnancy.

Incubi are extremely fertile and crave children. A typical mate therefore bears multiple children to satisfy the Incubus. If sex occurs while they are awake, typical contraceptive methods can be employed, but there were few options for dream sex. Permanent sterilization methods performed on the mate are the only way to completely eliminate the danger of pregnancy during dream sex. That can create a problem if done too soon and the Incubus then has an insatiable desire for another child. The author thus recommended that at least two children be produced before going this route.

Getting pregnant wasn't likely something Harry had to worry about; it was Draco who would end up pregnant. At the moment he was happy with three children, thinking that three was more than enough, but he began to wonder how he would feel if Draco ended up pregnant again. A fourth child wouldn't be a bad thing…it was more that he had a lot on his plate already, with three children who didn't know him, one of whom didn't like him. He hoped Draco wouldn't want another anytime soon.

While Harry was reading, he heard some rustling from the bedroom. He thought nothing of it at first, but then he heard the crack of an elf, followed by panicked elf screeches. "Master Draco should _not_ be doing that in the closet! Master Draco should be using the loo!"

Harry jumped up and ran into the bedroom to find Draco standing in his closet with his pants down, aiming a stream of piss onto the carpet. It was already dribbling to an end before Harry could figure out an appropriate response.

Once Draco pulled up his pants, Harry said, "Come on, let's get you in the loo before you decide to do that again." He looked around at the several doors, one of which opened inward to show gleaming white porcelain. He pulled Draco that way, leading Draco into the loo. "This is where you should be relieving yourself."

"Huh?" Draco asked, looking confused.

"Do you have to go to the bathroom?" Harry asked loudly, like he was talking to a deaf person.

"Huh?"

Harry sighed and hit the side of his head with his palm in frustration. Draco was worse than he'd described himself. "Do you need to poo?"

"Poo?"

"Yes, poo."

"No…"

"Is there anything in this room you want to use?" Harry asked and Draco nodded. "What?"

Draco pointed to the large claw-foot tub. Harry felt like he was bathing a three-year-old as he helped Draco undress and get into the tub. Draco grabbed a bottle of body wash and squirted almost the entire bottle on himself, creating copious bubbles as the water continued to pour in. Harry thought for a moment that Draco was going to play in the bubble bath like a three-year-old, but then he noticed that Draco's face was still blank, not smiling. Instead Draco clumsily washed himself, dropping his washcloth multiple times, forcing Harry to summon it for him.

Eventually Draco finished his bath and Harry helped him dry off. Then Harry found a fresh pair of pajamas, which he changed Draco into, before putting Draco back to bed. It still wasn't that late, but this time Draco fell right to sleep. Harry went back to the sofa, where he read for another hour, before going to sleep himself.

When they woke up in the morning, Draco was finally able to communicate, verbally expressing that they needed to call an elf to bring breakfast. Only Draco's speech was slow and his face still seemed rather blank, as if not all the lights were on upstairs. Harry called the elf for breakfast, which brought them two trays in the sitting room. They sat quietly together, Harry enjoying the delicious pancakes immensely; they were even better than Mrs. Weasley's, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

Finished eating, Harry put his fork down and looked over at Draco, who had barely touched his food. Draco was holding his fork backward, the prongs in his hand, while trying to spear a pancake with the handle. It looked like Draco had only managed to damage his breakfast and create holes in the pancakes, without actually getting any in his mouth.

"Here, let me help you with that," Harry said, taking Draco's fork away.

The handle was smeared with the whipped cream the elves had topped the cakes with. Harry spelled it clean, before turning it around and correctly placing it in Draco's hand. Draco then proceeded to stab his food with the correct end, but with no technique. After repeated trials, he got a small piece on his fork, which he then tried to insert into his mouth, but missed, leaving behind a dab of whipped cream on his cheek. Harry thought the miss warranted some sort of reaction, but none came from Draco, other than to try again.

Eventually Harry decided to confiscate the fork and feed Draco himself. Draco ate about three bites before proclaiming, "Full."

Harry didn't think there was any way in the world Draco could be full after three bites, but he figured the wizard would rather starve than be fed like a toddler.

After breakfast, Harry cleaned Draco up. He was just wondering what to do for the rest of the day with a zombie, when Draco picked up a book and asked, "Read?"

It wasn't one of Draco's books on Incubi or anything else of practical value. Instead it was a pre-teen romance full of obvious corny plots. It was the type of thing Harry couldn't imagine Draco going for, but Draco did seem to be paying attention, sitting down and watching Harry read. Harry wasn't entirely sure Draco enjoyed it, but then Draco didn't seem capable of enjoying anything.

Harry read until lunch. By then Draco had begun to recover more of his coordination and was able to eat half of his sandwich on his own, although it was not without difficulty. Harry offered to help Draco with the rest of the meal, but Draco declined, again saying he was full. Harry picked back up the book and asked, "Should I continue?"

"How long potion?" Draco asked, pointing to his watch.

"Well you took it at about eight last night and it's now one, so it's been in your system almost seventeen hours. It's the twelve hour potion, isn't it?" Harry asked, doing the mental calculation. If Draco was supposed to take it every twelve hours, it would have him re-medicating right about when they were eating breakfast. Draco had still been an utter moron at breakfast. There was no way that would work.

"End?" Draco asked.

"Huh?" Harry asked confused, not understanding what Draco wanted.

"Over?" Draco asked again, pointing to his watch.

"Oh, you want to know how long until the potion is over?" Harry asked and this time Draco nodded. "Well it's supposed to leave the system completely after twenty-four hours, which is another seven hours away."

"Seven?" Draco sounded confused, not incredulous as one would expect for that question.

"This many," Harry said, holding up seven fingers. Draco moved to copy, but only got up four fingers on one hand and one on the other. "Close enough. Seems like practically forever." Draco nodded. "Shall I continue reading?"

Draco nodded again, so Harry continued. Eight O'clock came and went without Draco returning to normal. He improved with each passing hour, managing to eat a good half of his dinner by himself, but progress was slow and subtle. Just before nine, he fell asleep on the sofa and Harry levitated him to bed.

* * *

Author's Note: This is my least favorite chapter, but I think showing the side effects was necessary for Harry to understand why Draco did what he did. Up next Harry will be invited over for dinner.

Please Review!


	8. Chapter 8

When Draco woke up in the morning, he was groggy and in pain, but if the way he was moaning and complaining was anything to go by, he was back to his normal self. He apparently had a splitting headache that not even a headache tonic could cure. Harry had only taken one day off and was expected in, so he left Draco in the care of the elves and went to work.

After work Harry went directly to Malfoy Manor, to check on Draco. Draco was lying on his bed, looking like he hadn't gotten out of it today, although he did seem less miserable than he had in the morning.

"How are you feeling?" Harry asked softly.

"Like a herd of centaurs stampeded my head. Please don't ever make me take that stuff again," Draco answered, sounding strung out.

"I won't. Obviously it doesn't work for you."

"Hold me?" Draco's face looked innocent and vulnerable as he made the request and Harry couldn't refuse.

Harry climbed into bed with Draco, wrapping his arms around him. Now that it had been proven that Draco was telling the truth about horrible side effects, Harry was committed to helping him pull off this lie. Harry would let the Ministry continue to think he was the Incubus and chose the incompetent Gregory Goyle as his healer.

The two were still lying together an hour later when a house elf popped in and announced, "Mistress Narcissa be wanting to know if Harry Potter and Master Draco is coming to dinner, sirs. The little masters be asking for Master Draco, sir."

"Tell her we'll be down in a minute," Draco replied, slowly pulling himself up to a sitting position.

Harry stood and Draco followed him up, stretching to get the kinks out.

"Should I go?" Harry asked apprehensively. He wanted to stay, but he didn't want to invite himself to dinner.

"No, you should stay. You're having dinner with us," Draco said confidently, although his voice was graveled.

There was a quick detour to change, Harry out of his work robes and Draco out of his pajamas. Then they walked together through the corridors of the Manor.

They first caught sight of the children while descending the stairs; Dionysus stalking the corridor outside the dining room sulkily, Scorp chasing Cori in endless circles, laughing joyously. Scorp stopped in his tracks when he saw the pair of adults, but Cori kept running and giggling by herself until she noticed the guest. Then she ran into a shadowed corner and attempted to squeeze behind a marble statue with Malfoy features. The statue looked down at her with a smile and twisted out of her way, allowing the pudgy little body to hide behind him.

"Father?" Scorp asked Draco, implying a question of what was going on. Nysus seconded the question with a pointed look at their parents.

"I've been ill. Harry was taking good care of me; I feel loads better now," Draco said, trying to sound his usual self, but still feeling rather off.

"Did he hurt you?" Nysus asked, eyeing Harry darkly.

"No! No, nothing of the sort. I told you, Nysus, I was ill and he made me feel better," Draco reiterated.

"You don't look better," Nysus replied.

"Thanks," Draco said with false cheer. "Come on, let's go eat. Cori, come out from behind Armand; we're having chicken pie."

Cori's ears perked up at that. She slipped out of her hiding place and clung to Draco's leg as he entered the dining room, joining his mother at the long wooden table. He gave Narcissa a greeting composed of a kiss and a hug, before taking his seat next to Cori's booster. Harry chose the seat on Draco's other side and the children filed in. Dionysus chose the seat next to Narcissa and Scorp sat next to Harry. There were several empty chairs around the table and although it didn't have the cozy feel of a Weasley dinner, it did have the feel of family about it.

"How are you feeling today, Draco?" Narcissa asked, picking up her silverware for the first course, which had just appeared on the table.

"Much Better. Harry took good care of me, Mother," Draco repeated.

"He didn't really, did he Father? He made you sick, didn't he?" Nysus asked.

"Now I already explained this to you Nysus; Harry did not hurt me or make me ill. He's not a bad man. He's my friend."

"But he took you away," Nysus protested.

"That was a misunderstanding and it was my fault. I lied to him when he was trying to do his job, so he had no choice but to take me away," Draco explained.

"And I won't do it again. I've learned my lesson: I won't take your father away from you ever again," Harry added sincerely.

"Yes, Harry here has agreed to help me trick the Ministry into leaving me alone. They wouldn't be leaving me alone now if he wasn't covering for me," Draco said.

"Is that really true? Are you really lying for Father, Mr. Potter?" Scorp asked.

"Yes," Harry admitted.

Both boys let out gasps of surprise.

"See, Harry isn't so bad, is he?" Draco asked, trying to sound cheery as he loaded up his fork.

"I guess not," Scorp agreed, but Nysus just grumbled to himself.

"Fa'er?" Cori asked.

"Yes Sunshine?" Draco asked.

"I wan' cake."

"After you eat your dinner, you can have cake. You need to eat your pot pie first. See, it's yummy," Draco said, taking the three-year-old's fork and loading it up with a bite of vegetable and crust; Cori had broken it apart and pulled out the chunks of chicken to eat, leaving the rest.

"No pie; cake," Cori pouted, turning her chubby little face away from Draco and the fork.

"Come on, one bite Cori? You can have cake later," Draco wheedled, pushing the fork further forwards, towards his little girl. She turned silently and took the bite of food, eating it despite her protests.

Harry chuckled at the child's antics, realizing that Cori wasn't only shy, but extremely spoiled. It seemed so quintessentially Malfoy to spoil her rotten.

"She has a sweet tooth," Draco offered as an explanation to Harry.

"I'm sure she does," Harry replied with another chuckle.

Dinner carried on like that, with Draco every so often encouraging Cori to take a bite of vegetable and with her putting up a fuss. Dionysus mostly forgot about Harry as he ate, but every once in a while he remembered Harry was there and pouted. Scorp, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind Harry and towards the end started asking questions about the war.

Afterwards, Draco sent the children upstairs to finish their homework and Narcissa went with them. Harry's instincts were telling him to stay, but he also thought it would be presumptuous to do so.

"Well I better get going," Harry said, placing his napkin down on the table and standing up.

"No, you better stay," Draco said, reaching out a hand to capture Harry's wrist, to stop the wizard from leaving. "I'm going to need you tonight."

"What about the kids?" Harry asked.

"They need to become accustomed to you being around, the sooner the better. For now, it's fine to tell them that you are my old friend, but soon we should tell them that it's more than that."

"When?"

"I don't know; it might take them some time to come to know you the way they should before we tell them. But I was thinking maybe we ought to tell them that we're dating."

"Alright, taking it in stages could work. Dinner was really nice. It felt almost normal, like we were a real family, doing typical everyday stuff. That's what I want to do with them. I just worry that moving too fast will ruin it. Nysus doesn't seem to like me much."

"You didn't like me much either for a long time. He is so much like you that it's ridiculous. Sorry, but I do find it funny that he's so insistent on hating you when the two of you have so much in common," Draco said with a smirk, the first of the day.

"It would be funnier if it were happening to someone else."

"Yes, and again, I'm sorry for having done this to you. With the first two, I honestly thought you wouldn't want them if you knew. With Cori, I still thought you wouldn't want her, but I was weak and waffling back and forth with this uncontrollable desire to tell you. All of those heavy secrets were a burden to bear."

"Let's talk about this later. What's important is the kids getting back into their normal routine. Are they waiting for you upstairs? Do you normally help them with their homework?" Harry asked and Draco nodded.

"Yes, but I do want you to stay the night with me and I think it would be good if you stayed for the bedtime routine. You can go if you need to, but if you do, I will be visiting you in your dreams. I won't be able to make it without you tonight."

"Alright, I'll stay, but once the children are put to bed, we need to finish this talk," Harry said and Draco agreed.

They went upstairs to the second floor, where the children's rooms were. Cori was in the first room, a playroom, running after a pair of elves that kept apparating away from her in a game that resembled tag.

"She's fine. Let's go check on the boys," Draco said, nodding towards their daughter.

Harry nodded back and the tour continued. Draco pointed out the bedrooms and bathroom further down the hall, before they came to the study, where Scorp and Nysus were sitting at a pair of desks, doing their homework. There was also a smaller desk in the room with Corona's name on it, set up with crayons and a halfway colored drawing of the solar system.

"This is where they do their schoolwork. Whatever you do, do not touch Madam Lestrange's desk. We don't want to mess up her teaching plans," Draco explained, pointing to the large desk near the chalkboard in the front of the room.

"Hello again, Harry. Glad you decided to stay," Narcissa greeted from her position halfway between the boys, where she had been helping them.

Scorp and Nysus looked up at them then and saw Harry. Scorp's expression was neutral, but Nysus' face immediately shifted into a scowl.

"What is _he_ still doing here?" Nysus asked scornfully.

"I asked him to stay. He's going to take care of me tonight when you lot go to sleep," Draco answered.

"Why?" Nysus asked.

"I already explained to you that I haven't been feeling well," Draco reiterated.

"You mean he's going to stay the night!?" Scorp asked incredulously.

"Yes," Draco answered.

"He can't! No way!" Nysus protested.

"Dionysus, calm down. That is no way to speak to your father," Narcissa chastised.

"But I don't want him here!" Nysus insisted, pointing to Harry.

"You are being rude and your behavior is not befitting a Malfoy. If you have a problem with Harry, you can say so nicely or you can have a time out," Draco warned.

"But that's not fair!" Nysus shouted.

Draco merely raised an eyebrow, which was enough to make Nysus stop and think about what he was doing. Nysus took a deep breath, before speaking in a much calmer drawl, "Sorry Father, but I would like your friend to leave."

"Alright, thank you for telling me,"" Draco said to Nysus, before turning to Harry. "Harry, I will take you back to the playroom. You can stay with Cori."

"But Father! Aren't you going to help me with my maths? We've hardly seen you all week!" Scorp protested.

"I will come back and help you with your maths," Draco promised and Scorp nodded acceptance.

Then Draco motioned for Harry to follow him back to the playroom, where Cori was shrieking happily as she played with the elves. It took a minute for her to notice them, but then she did, stopping in her tracks and shoving her pudgy little fingers in her mouth.

"Cori, you remember Harry. He's going to stay and play with us," Draco said. "Why don't you show him one of your toys?"

Cori nodded and went to one of three toy chests in the room. She rummaged through a pile of baby dolls and stuffed toys until she found her stuffed griffin. Then she brought the griffin over to show Draco, ignoring Harry.

"Very good," Draco encouraged, bending down to pick his daughter up. He held her at Harry's level, angling his body so that Cori was facing Harry. "Show Harry how to make it fly Sunshine,"

Cori pushed on the chest of the stuffed griffin, making the toy come to life. It shook its head, flapped its wings, and wriggled in her hands. She let go and the toy took off into the air, flying once around the room before returning to her outstretched hands.

"Very good," Harry said cheerfully. "Do you like griffins, Cori?"

Cori nodded, a shy smile on her face.

The three of them played together, Draco encouraging Cori to show Harry her favorite toys. Slowly she started to warm up to Harry, especially when he started playing baby dolls with her. They fed dolls with toy bottles, wrapped them in blankets, and carried them around the playroom. Draco stood back watching until she forgot all about him and then slipped from the room. Draco went back to the study room, where he helped Scorp and Nysus with their homework.

Next was bath time and Draco sent Nysus to bathe first, so that Scorp would have some time without his recalcitrant little brother to get to know Harry. Scorp was hesitant when Draco led him to the playroom. Cori's toys were all over the floor now and she had Harry perched on a tiny chair as she pretended to serve tea to him and a stuffed monkey.

"Cori?" Scorp asked, surprised that his sister was playing with this virtual stranger.

"Scor! Tea, Scor, tea," Cori said, holding out one of the miniature tea cups to her brother.

"Well what do you say Scorp? Shall we have some tea with your sister?" Draco asked.

Scorp nodded. He and Draco sat on the floor by the toddler sized table, Draco next to Harry and Scorp on Draco's other side. Cori fetched more miniature teacups from her toy box and pretended to serve them tea along with wooden slices of pretend cake.

"You are a good big brother, Scorpius, to play tea party with Cori," Harry said. Scorp just shrugged. "What sort of things do you like to play?"

"I like my Muggle building blocks. Father gave them to me for my birthday," Scorpius answered, motioning towards the Lego pirate ship sitting on a table in one corner of the room.

"You let them play with Muggle toys?" Harry asked Draco.

"Yes. Muggles are people too, right Scorp?" Draco asked his oldest.

"Yeah and sometimes they make cool stuff, like pirate ships and cars and movies. Have you ever seen a movie, Mr. Potter?" Scorp asked.

"Yes, I grew up with Muggles," Harry answered.

"You did?" Scorp asked wide eyed and Harry nodded. "Then you know all about pirates?"

"Sure do," Harry confirmed.

"Scorp, why don't you show Harry your book about pirates?" Draco asked.

Scorp got up from the floor to pull a worn book off of a bookcase. The cover had a colorful picture of a chest full of gold, a pirate with an eyepatch, and a pirate ship. "I've read the whole thing three times!" he exclaimed, showing the book to Harry.

"That's really cool. You are lucky you have a father like Draco who lets you have Muggle toys and read Muggle books about pirates," Harry replied, taking the book to look at.

"I know. None of my friends are allowed to have anything Muggle, except for Ryan and Rachel," Scorp replied.

"Ryan and Rachel?" Harry asked.

"Madam Lestrange's children," Draco supplied. "She is pro-Muggle."

"How did that happen?" Harry asked.

"Some of us do not want to make the mistakes of our parents. I don't want my children to see the things I've seen," Draco answered.

"Father was in the war. He had to live with the evil Dark Lord and a man-eating snake!" Scorp explained.

"Scorp, not in front of your sister," Draco chastised, looking to Cori to make sure she didn't understand. Cori wasn't paying attention, digging in her toy box for more pretend food to serve.

"Scorp, your turn!" Nysus called, running into the room in his pajamas, his hair still damp from his bath. He stopped in the doorway when he saw Harry, his face distorting into a scowl.

"Go ahead Scorp. Nysus, would you care to have some of your sister's delicious tea?" Draco asked, holding out a miniature teacup.

"No," Nysus replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Um, Draco, maybe I should go," Harry said, not wanting to get Nysus in trouble again. He wanted to get to know his children, not get his stubborn middle child punished during playtime. This was only his second visit and he was prepared to be patient and wait for Nysus to get used to him.

"Sure. The children have to go to sleep in half an hour. Why don't you go home and come back in an hour?" Draco offered.

Harry agreed and left.

* * *

Author's Note: What's an Incubus story without sex? It will finally come next chapter.

I'd love to hear what you think of the kids. Please Review!


	9. Chapter 9

Once home, Harry bathed, and then dithered around his bedroom. All of the sudden he didn't know what he was doing. He was going to spend the night with Draco Malfoy and not just in his dreams. This wasn't like last night either, because this time Draco would be sober and expecting sex. Should he put on his pajamas and pack his work clothes? Or should he put back on his regular clothes, and pack his pajamas and his work clothes? It was weird showing up somewhere in pajamas, but they were just going to bed, weren't they? Why should he put his regular clothes back on after his bath, if they were just going to come right off again? He could floo straight into Draco's house, so he didn't need to dress properly. But then the pajamas would be coming off too…

In the end, Harry opted for putting his regular clothes on and packing the rest. He didn't know if he could floo directly into Draco's room. Draco did not live alone, so there was a chance Narcissa, the children, or the elves might see Harry arrive. If they did, he didn't want to be caught in his pajamas sneaking into Draco's bedroom.

Harry felt like an eleven-year-old sneaking around the corridors of Hogwarts as he flooed into the Manor's deserted drawing room. No elves greeted him and he didn't see anyone, so he made his way up to Draco's room alone. The bedroom was empty, but he'd barely chosen a spot to set his overnight bag before Draco came in.

"Sorry I'm late, bedtime stories," Draco explained, making his way to the in suite bathroom.

Draco left the bathroom door open as he brushed and flossed. Harry approached nervously and decided to ask about the children, to take his mind off of what they were about to do. "Do you read them bedtime stories every night?"

Draco nodded and answered, "For the most part, unless I'm away. Scorp thinks he's too old and reads to himself, but Nysus and Cori let me read to them."

"You're a really good father." Harry felt better about the situation now that he knew how good a father Draco was. Not only did Draco spend a lot of time with the children, but also was raising them to be pro-muggle. Harry smiled as he thought back to Draco's line about muggle being people too; that was the type of thing he was glad to know his children were learning. He'd rather have known his children from the beginning, but he couldn't change the past, and at least Draco was raising them better than Draco had been raised.

"I try to be," Draco replied, putting down his toothbrush. He rinsed his mouth and dried his hands, before turning to Harry. "I try to make up for them not having a mother. I never for a moment considered that you would be so good about this. If I had known you would take it this well, I would have told you in the first place. I'm really sorry I didn't. I shouldn't have kept them from you. That wasn't fair to you."

"I've made mistakes too. I should never have hit you. I can't believe I broke your rib."

"And my arm. The arm was worse."

"Did you really let muggle doctors treat your broken arm?"

Draco nodded and answered, "I had to. I couldn't exactly go into St. Mungo's and explain that I was an unregistered Incubus and that my victim broke my arm in a dream, could I?"

"If I was really hurting you, why didn't you ever fight back? Why did you let me hit you in that cell? You had to be taken to hospital, but I didn't have a scratch on me when I woke up."

"If I touched you, then you would have woken up with marks and realized that it was more than a dream. I couldn't risk you asking questions."

"So you just let me beat the living daylights out of you?" Harry asked incredulously. "Can you ever forgive me?"

"There's nothing to forgive. I started it. I wanted to fight, so I pressed your buttons and egged you on."

"Why would you do that, if you knew you couldn't fight back?"

Draco shrugged. "Sometimes a one-sided fight with you is better than no fight at all. I was angry."

"And you didn't know I'd lose control and break your rib like that. Nysus is right, I'm a monster." Harry's tone was self-deprecating.

Draco sighed and replied, "You don't listen very well do you? I started it. I wanted it. _I_ am the Incubus, not you. I entered your dream. I could have left anytime I wanted; I just didn't have the will to leave you alone."

"You could have left the dream at any time and you didn't? What is wrong with you?"

"Like I said, sometimes a one-sided fight with you is better than nothing. My mother thinks I must have masochistic tendencies to pick someone like you. She's always saying I should find someone more attainable and settle down. The problem is that I've never wanted anyone more than I want you."

"You want me? Really?" To this day Harry still had trouble believing someone could really love him. The fans just wanted to be near him because he was famous, they didn't know him. His friends and the Weasleys loved him, but they were different. His love life was a dismal failure and that took its toll on his self-esteem.

"Yes, I love you," Draco admitted, taking Harry's hand in his.

"Why?"

"Fishing for compliments, Potter? That's not like you. You're supposed to say it back," Draco teased.

"Opps, sorry. Ah, I love you too. It's just that, er, how can you love me after what I did to you?"

"How can you love me after everything I've done to you?" Draco turned the question back on Harry.

"You mean keeping the children from me?" Harry asked for clarification, because there was a lot of negative history between them and there was a chance Draco was referring to something from their schooldays. Draco nodded. "Well you had your reasons and you've taken good care of them. If I'd come here and found you teaching them to follow in your father's footsteps and ignoring them half the time, then I'd be pissed. But you didn't; you loved them and have been doing your best. You made a mistake and you're trying to make up for it."

"You made a mistake too. And unlike me, you were sleeping the entire time. I cannot exactly expect you to make the best decisions when you are sound asleep, now can I?"

Harry just shrugged, not willing to set aside his guilt. It seemed like a cop out to blame his actions on the dream, because he thought he would've acted similarly if he'd been awake.

"Now will you take me to bed or are we going to stay up talking all night?" Draco asked.

"I'll take you to bed, but I need to know where this is going. You can't just disappear without a word again. I want a real relationship, not just sex," Harry insisted.

Draco gulped. Now it was his turn to be self-deprecating. "You want that with me?"

"Yes, of course. The question is do you want me too?"

Draco nodded and answered, "Yes, very much so. What, exactly, are your expectations of me?" He wanted to be clear, because he didn't want to give Harry any excuses to break things off with him. Whatever Harry expected, he was going to live up to it.

"You know, all the typical stuff." Harry went on to describe what he thought of as the typical monogamous boyfriend relationship. There were a couple of additional things he added, such as not speaking to reporters about him or the children without clearing it with him first and regular visits to the Weasleys.

"I suppose that includes Ronald Weasley and his wife," Draco drawled.

"Yeah, it does. You know their daughter Rose is the same age as Cori. Maybe we could arrange a playdate," Harry suggested. He knew Ron would be willing to bring Rose, but odds were Hermione would stay home with baby Hugo, who was only a month old. Hermione was always exhausted these days from having to get up two or three times every night. That was probably why he hadn't received an owl from her asking what was going on with him and Draco yet; she was too tired to notice.

"I suppose Rose is like a miniature version of her mother, but with red hair."

"Mostly, except she does love to fly and Hermione prefers to stay on the ground."

"She'll take charge and boss Cori around. See, I was hoping to find some kids more like Vince and Greg for her to play with. Someone who won't boss her around and who will let her come out of her shell," Draco said, sounding concerned.

"Vince and Greg were morons. I'd rather her be friends with Rose. I'm sure Cori will learn to hold her own."

"I don't know…"

"Are you really that worried about her shyness, Draco?" Harry asked, studying the worried expression on Draco's face.

"Yes. It's not normal. Whoever heard of a shy Malfoy?"

"She's only three. I'm sure she'll grow out of it."

"Maybe."

"Good. So back to the part about you being my boyfriend…" Harry hedged, because Draco didn't really give him an answer.

"Yes, as long as you meet a few demands of my own," Draco drawled.

"What?"

"Let's see, cover for me when it comes to being an Incubus, put up with my friends, attend yearly family functions with my extended family, including the pureblood fanatics who even I cannot stand, and most importantly, fuck my brains out on a regular basis, starting tonight."

"Aren't all of the Death Eaters in your family locked up or dead?" Harry asked.

"Not all of them." Draco held up his left forearm, letting his sleeve fall back to show the skin that had once contained the hideous Dark Mark. He could still feel it there, but it had faded and disappeared into his skin after the Dark Lord's death.

"You don't count," Harry said, taking Draco's hand and pulling it towards his mouth. He pressed a gentle kiss to the region where he knew the tattoo was hidden.

"I take it that you are willing to comply with my conditions, starting with fucking my brains out?" Draco asked, stepping closer to Harry and pushing his body up against the other wizard.

Harry nodded, wrapping his arms around Draco. He angled his head up, going onto his tiptoes to press his lips to Draco's lips, initiating a steaming hot kiss, making him swoon. He'd been closing the height gap between them during the war, but after the war Draco had continued to grow and he had not. Thus Draco was back to being a good four inches taller. Normally he was embarrassed by his short stature, but he did enjoy being in the arms of a taller man, so being short had its advantages.

Without breaking the kiss, Draco slowly walked them to the bed, his hands entangling in Harry's messy mop of hair. He gently tugged on Harry's hair as he lowered his body to the bed and Harry followed after. Once on the bed, he broke away to reach for his wand on the bedside table. They were both hard and ready to go, so he cast a few cleansing spells on himself and then a pair of stretching and lubricating charms.

Harry took the chance to pull his shirt off over his head and shuck out of his shoes and trousers. He stumbled a bit as his feet got stuck in his trouser legs. Then he heard the last of the charms. He reached an arm out to Draco's wand arm to stop the other wizard and said, "Draco, wait."

Draco looked up at Harry and asked, "What? Did you want to do it yourself?"

Harry shrugged, because he did like to take it slow and do things by hand, but that wasn't why he stopped Draco. "Um, it's just that, er, I know that you said in the beginning that you only like to, ah, bottom, but, er, you told me the other day…that you have to bottom so that you won't, um, get me pregnant. And, ah, we don't have to worry about that this time, because we are going to use protection, right?"

"Yes, I went out two days ago and bought something the muggles call 'con-dumbs'. You have to put one on your junk when you're in me, but it's supposed to physically block your sperm from impregnating me. Contraceptive potions are better, of course, but they don't work on Incubi, so it's 'con-dumbs' or another baby." As Draco spoke, he first summoned an extra-large pack of condoms and then started stripping off his robes and other clothing, revealing a well-toned body. He was long and lanky with muscles in all of the right places.

"You could put on the condom and then you could, ah, top me. You know, if you, er, want to, that is," Harry said nervously fiddling with his finger nails in order to avoid making eye contact during this awkward conversation.

Draco looked at Harry then, absently tossing the last of his clothing, a sock, onto the floor. He waited until Harry looked at him, before he spoke. "Harry, if that is something you need from a relationship, then I promise I will try, but you need to give me time to work up to it. It's just that I've had nothing but a series of bad experiences with that and I'd rather not do it again. I would try it for you, if you need me to, but really I am much more comfortable with things staying the way they've always been between us. Being awake is enough of a change for our first time, don't you think?"

It wasn't that Harry felt a particular need to bottom. He preferred to top and did so most of the time, but whenever one of his boyfriends was in the mood to top, he'd take his turn on the bottom. He didn't mind it, but he didn't enjoy it as much as he did topping. Because he couldn't imagine going without it, he couldn't imagine anyone else doing so either. But he wasn't going to force it on Draco. "Yeah, okay. I don't actually want to bottom, but, um, if you ever want to top, then ah, all you have to do is, er, ask."

"Duly noted. Do you happen to know how to use a 'con-dumb,' then? The shop-keeper looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for a demonstration."

"Um, yeah, I do…" Harry admitted, taking the package to open.

"Good. Now shut up and fuck me," Draco said, pulling Harry down to the bed by the neck.

"Yes sir," Harry muttered into Draco's lips.

Draco pulled back from Harry just enough to say, "It's yes, my Lord." Then Draco's head snapped to the left and he began to stretch the muscles in his neck, his jaw angling up, down, to the right, and then back to the left. At the same time, his eyes glassed over as raw need overtook his mind and all he could think about was sex.

It was a move Harry had seen many times before, but never had his mind registered the sight. Here he was, having spent years as an Auror and immune to most forms of mind control, but in his dreams, he had obeyed the silent force urging him to pay no mind to the tell-tale tick of an Incubus; if he had, he would've known all along what Draco was. He could feel the image slipping away from him, failing to imprint on his memory, but this time he had enough control over himself to grab hold of it. He wasn't going to forget it again. This time he was going to remember every last detail.

"Yes, my Lord," Harry parroted back, before capturing Draco's lower lip between his own.

They kissed until they felt woozy from blood rushing south and broke apart panting for breath. Harry recovered first and found one of several condoms that had spilled out of the package onto the bed.

*Censored

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Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. The cold weather set off my auto-immune disease and I've been bed ridden for almost a week.

Please Review!


	10. Chapter 10

Ron was waiting in Harry's office the next morning when Harry went to work, with what looked to be a copy of a Wizenagamot hearing transcript in his hands and a hard, intense look on his face. "What the fuck is this, Harry!?" he demanded, waving the parchment at Harry. "When were you planning on telling me and Hermione about this!?"  
"Is that by any chance the Malfoy report?" Harry asked.

"You know that it is. Why didn't you tell us? Ten years? Merlin's saggy ballocks! This bears repeating: what the fuck?" Ron asked again.

"So I take it you know about Draco and the children…" Harry hedged.

"That they're yours? Yeah, I kinda figured that one out when a copy of the report landed on my desk last night. I guess Robards thought I ought to know, even if my best friend didn't bother to tell me. Why the fuck did I have to find out like this? You could have told me!" Ron's face was red with anger now.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I was going to tell you, I've just been busy with Draco and our kids. I missed ten years and I've been trying to make up for it." Harry's tone was defensive.

"How did this even happen? I mean, this report says you're an Incubus, Harry, but you're not. How could you be? Your mum was Muggleborn and your dad wasn't infected."

"Erm, we think it must've come from my mum's side. She must've been an undiagnosed Succubus or something. I have some hard to recognize mutant strain of the virus and I test negative. My mum married young, so she probably only ever went after my dad in her dreams. With the first war and her being murdered, there really wasn't a chance to uncover it." Harry had been trying to figure out how he was going to explain this for days now. His plan was to stick as closely to the story Draco had tricked him into believing as possible.

Ron waved the parchment around in the air for emphasis as he replied, "You are forgetting one thing: your mum was a Muggleborn, Harry. Muggles don't have the virus, even a rare mutant form that is virtually undetectable."

"Well she couldn't have been Muggleborn then. Her mum was a Muggle, but Grandpa Evans couldn't have been her father. Grandma Evans must've been attacked by an Incubus." This was the only possible explanation that did not involve witches and or wizards hiding the virus for generations from the Ministry.

"A rouge Incubus? No fucking way," Ron replied in disbelief.

"Yes. It's either that or my dad had it, but he was a Pureblood. If he had it, then one of his parents must've had it and there's a whole chain of people who hid it."

"Your mum having it and not knowing does make more sense…And it's some mutant strain that tests negative, right?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed.

"Then there could be others like you. One rogue Incubus back then could lead to a whole bunch of undiagnosed Incubi or Succubi Muggleborns terrorizing people's dreams. I have to go tell Robards!" Ron rolled up the parchment he'd been waving around in preparation to run back over to the Auror department.

"No, Ron! Wait," Harry exclaimed, grabbing hold of Ron's arm to stop his friend. Ron paused, looking at Harry questioningly, because covering something up was way out of character for Harry. "Look, I don't want you telling the whole world. I know there could be others out there, but not from my mum and not from me. I only ever dreamt of Draco Malfoy. I know it's strange that my subconscious chose him, but I love him and he's the wizard I want. Are you okay with that?"

"Three kids and ten plus years in, is a little late to be asking if I'm okay with it, Harry. I'm your best friend; don't you think you could've told me about your weird sex dreams?"

Harry blushed and looked away before answering, "I thought they were just dreams. It did occur to me once that I might be an Incubus, but the test was negative, so I thought that it was only a dream. For a long time, I didn't really know Draco, so I was embarrassed I was dreaming about him. As long as it wasn't real, I didn't want you to know."

"So what, you want to continue hiding the kids forever, because you're embarrassed you slept with Malfoy?" Ron asked indignantly, his disapproval clearly evident on his face.

"No, now that I've gotten to know Draco better, he's not so bad. I don't want to hide our kids; I'm proud of them. I'm proud of Draco too; he's really changed for the better. But we haven't told the kids yet, because…well Draco wants to build up to that slowly. And, er, well he's the victim in this and he's the one who's been raising them all this time, so I sort of thought that I should do things his way."

"Alright, I could ask to keep the details of the investigation under wraps for a few months. That should give you plenty of time."

"But it's not just me; Cori, my daughter, she has the virus too. She's only three and if it gets out that I have it and that they're my children, then someone will put two and two together and come up with Cori. She's the sweetest little girl and not ready to be in the center of the media's attention. I don't want reporters hassling her and her picture plastered across every paper in the country." Harry's voice was pleading.

Ron's face softened as he realized that this wasn't just about Harry and Draco, but three innocent children as well. "She's the same age as Rose, isn't she?"

"Yeah. Imagine how you and Hermione'd feel if it was Rose who was born with this virus. I know we hurt people when we invade their dreams and some of the infected use it to rape innocent civilians, but not all of us do. We are all just born with it and my Cori is too young to hurt anyone or understand why this is a big deal. I really don't care if you want to look for my mum's real father, but I don't want it getting out that I have the virus or the connection to Cori. I just want to protect her. I've been a bloody awful dad; protecting her from the press is the least I can do."

"I guess I could leave your name out of it, but I'll need something to work with. We'll have to have the virus isolated and analyzed to see where it came from. And we should probably have St. Mungo's start screening for it too."

"Great idea, Ron. I'll have my healer send in my samples as soon as he isolates the virus. It might take a while. Is there any way you could just keep this to yourself until then? It's not like you have anything to go on without the sample," Harry hedged.

"I guess…but Robards already knows; he's the one who put this report on my desk," Ron replied, slapping the scroll of parchment in one hand against the palm of his other.

"Brilliant, that's all I ask. That and leave Cori out of it."

"The law states the Incubi and Succubi who have yet to complete puberty and haven't yet begun invading dreams have the right to complete anonymity. Even adults have the right to privacy, provided that they are properly medicated or bound to a mate. It is only the rogues who the public needs to be warned about."

"You're a virtual fountain of knowledge."

"Hermione's rubbed off on me. Her and all of these years as an Auror… And I sort of brushed up on this last night, after finding this scroll on my desk. By the way, Harry, Hermione and I called Mum and Dad over to watch the kids last night so that we could confront you. Only when we got to Grimmauld, it was deserted. You're gonna have to explain this to them."

"I'll tell them, but I'd like to keep a tight lid on it. For now could we keep it to just the four of us?" Harry pleaded.

"I'm sure they will keep it a secret if you ask."

"And I'm sort of really busy at the moment. I'm behind at work and I suddenly have a medical condition that I'm required to seek treatment for, along with a new boyfriend and three children who hate me and don't know that I'm their dad. Could you handle Hermione and your parents for me?"

Ron sighed, but agreed. With that settled, he went back to work, leaving Harry to concentrate on his work.

* * *

After work, Harry changed and headed over to Malfoy Manor, as he and Draco had planned that morning. After dinner Harry'd be busy, because his first visit with Healer Gregory Goyle was scheduled for late that evening. He wanted to spend as much time as he possibly could with his children, and that was why Draco had invited him for dinner and suggested that he come straight home after work.

Harry Flooed into the drawing room, where he was met by one of the many Malfoy house elves, who led him outside. The children were playing in the pool out back, Scorp and Nysus racing across the length, while Draco splashed and played with Cori on the steps of the shallow end. Harry went to the poolside nearest Draco, unsure how the children would react to him today. He wanted to greet Draco with a kiss, but it was still a bit soon for that. Instead he kept the greeting platonic, taking his boots and socks off and dangling his feet in the warm water. The Malfoys were the only family he knew who had enough house elves to keep an in-ground pool warm and filled with water even in the cold of an English autumn.

"Harry, I'm glad you came," Draco returned.

"Hullo Cori, how are you today?" Harry asked his daughter as she spun around in a circle on the middle step.

"Cock!" Cori answered.

"Draco?" Harry asked, unsure what was going on.

"Cock!" Cori repeated, pointing past Harry, where a peacock stood behind him on the lawn.

Harry turned, his and Draco's gaze both shifting to see the bird.

" _Pea_ -cock, Cori, _pea_ -cock," Draco corrected.

Harry sighed in relief that his daughter was referring to a bird and not what he thought she'd said.

"Get your head out of the gutter, Potter. She may take after us, but she's too young for any of that." Draco smirked.

"Right. And how long, exactly, do you leave the water in this pool?" Harry asked, wondering if he should start keeping a swimsuit here.

"All year round."

"Seriously?"

Draco shrugged and answered, "Some years, yes. Most years since Scorp was born, in fact. He loves to swim, so except for the few times when the weather was particularly horrid, the elves keep it heated." Harry nodded and there was a moment of silence, before Draco added. "Listen up, I have an idea for how to handle our little problem." Draco jerked his head in Nysus' direction, to indicate exactly which problem he was talking about.

"Has he started coming around then?" Harry asked hopefully.

"No, not exactly," Draco answered. Harry raised an eyebrow, signaling Draco to continue. "He wants something. Actually he's wanted it for ages now, but he asked again at lunch."

"Well, what is it?"

"We go to Muggle theater quite often, you see, because I want to keep them out of the eye of the Wizarding World and I don't want to keep them cooped up in the house. So we go out pretty much every weekend and Nysus loves the Muggle plays."

"Does he want to see a play? I could take him," Harry offered.

"Well yes, they do want to see a new play and you are welcome to come along, but that isn't where I was going. I can take them to the play this Saturday and then we can do our usual ice cream and shopping in Wiltshire. What I can't do is take Nysus to this after school drama club he wants to join. Not only is it in London, but it's Muggle. They meet five nights a week when they are gearing up for one of their shows, because the children put on their own little play. He talks all the time about wanting to be in plays and learn to act. He even puts on little skits at home for us sometimes. Scorp loves the movies, but Nysus is obsessed with the plays. I would take him to the club if I could, but with three children and a muggle location, I don't see how to manage it. If it was only once a week my mother and I could manage, but not five nights a week. I thought maybe if you could take him at least two of the nights, then my mother, Nanny Crabbe, and I could handle the rest. And it's only five nights when they are having a play and the two weeks leading up to the play. The rest of the time it's only two nights a week," Draco explained.

"He wants to be an actor?" Harry asked surprised. He'd seen a mischief maker and slotted the child into the same category as James Potter, Sirius Black, and the Weasley twins. None of them had wanted to be actors and neither did he, so he found the combination odd.

"Of course. Why do you think he likes breaking into the portrait room?" Draco asked and Harry shrugged. "A portrait is a captive audience, especially one with a spell on it preventing it from moving frames, like in the forbidden portrait room. Those portraits never see anyone or anything, so they make a seemingly fantastic audience. He tries his skits and ideas out of them first."

"Oh, so it's not because he has a problem with Muggles?" Harry was concerned about a potential Muggle phobia, since they were discussing signing the child up for a Muggle theater troupe.

"No, not at all. He's told portraits off before for saying things against Muggles, but I had no idea he shared their dislike for you. I would've said something if I had."

Harry believed Draco and nodded. "You know, I do live in London. It would be no problem for me to take him to that theater thing almost every night. And if I can't, then I can still grant you access to my house, so you could floo there and then hire a Muggle car to take you to wherever," Harry suggested.

"Greet! I don't mind you taking him, but maybe in the beginning it would be better if we both go. I'm worried about it being Muggle…if he acts up and something happens, then we could have a real problem on our hands."

"You're probably right, we should take this slowly. We'll both take him. We could tell him that I need to come, because my house is in London, so you have to floo into my place."

"He also needs to know that when the schedule increases to five nights a week, he'll be going with just you. That needs to be a condition of letting him go," Draco insisted.

"Alright, when do we tell him?" Harry asked.

"At dinner." Draco answered and Harry agreed.

When Harry next looked up at their sons, they had switched from racing to diving after a flash of gold. "What is that they're playing with? Some sort of pool toy?" he asked.

"Modified Snitch for the pool. I invited them for Scorp. They use their wings as flippers to swim around the pool and the boys swim after like Seekers. I sell them to Quidditch Supply stores under the name Water Snitches. No one knows they are a Malfoy product, so we make a fortune off of them," Draco explained.

"You invited the Water Snitch?" Harry asked impressed. He'd purchased a few for Teddy and his nephews and nieces over the years. He and the adult Weasleys had even spent a few enjoyable summer afternoons chasing after the fun water toys, which George now carried in the joke shop.

"Yes."

"George said he tried to contact the inventor about this new game we play at the Weasleys called Water-Quidditch, but he couldn't get a reply back. It's great fun. We play it with regular Quidditch gear, except for no brooms and your Water Snitches instead of regular Snitches. The only parts George had to invent were the floating goal hoops. They inflate themselves when thrown in the pool and then deflate and fold back into a neat little box when they dry out."

"Tell him to try again. We get a lot of corporate mail and something important invariably is lost in the deluge. This is the time of year when we need to start planning for next summer's rush," Draco replied.

"Absolutely," Harry agreed. After a minute, he proceeded to tell Draco about the conversation he'd had that morning with Ron, but leaving out enough of the conversation to make it difficult for the children, if listening, to follow what they were talking about.

It wasn't long before a house elf announced dinner. They made a detour to change, so Narcissa was already seated at the table when they arrived. They took their seats around the table. Draco was the only one who sat next to Harry.

Draco waited until they were finishing up dinner and the children were asking about dessert, before broaching the subject he and Harry had discussed earlier. "Nysus, I mentioned the theater club you want to join to Harry and we have come up with a solution that would allow you to attend."

Dionysus' face shifted from excitement over the theater club, to dislike for Harry, to suspicion. "How?" he asked skeptically.

"Well Harry lives in London. It would make taking you there a lot easier if we first floo to his house," Draco started.

"That's it?" Nysus asked.

"No. I mentioned at lunch that Grandmother, Nanny Crabbe, and I simply do not have time to take you five nights a week. Harry has agreed to take you at least two nights a week during those weeks. Alone; just you and him. Can you live with that?" Draco asked.

Nysus wanted to scream no, but he just barely managed to hold back his instinctual reaction. His face twisted into a frown as he thought about it. He hated Harry for locking his father up in jail, but he _really_ wanted to join the theater club. "There is no other way?" he asked.

"None," Draco confirmed. "Either you let Harry take you sometimes or you do not go."

Nysus looked to his grandmother for confirmation, who nodded. He let out a snarl of frustration, before taking a deep breath and answering, "I'll have to think about it, Father."

"You do that. You have three weeks to decide or they will start without you and you will have to wait another three months for the next play," Draco replied.

* * *

Author's Note: I think it's time Harry and Draco tell the children they're dating.

Please Review!


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: I'd like to thank natsuki23 for being the only one to take the time to review. You are appreciated!

* * *

They went to the theater the next Saturday. Nysus was still uncomfortable around Harry, evident by the sour expression on his face, but he kept his mouth shut and didn't say anything. As the adult, Harry didn't want to push himself on his son, so when it came time to split up, he went with Cori and Narcissa to see a children's puppet show, while Draco took Scorp and Nysus to see the cool new play. Afterwards they met up for sandwiches and ice cream. Nysus was so excited about the play that he talked nonstop and barely noticed Harry was there at all.

Overall, Harry and Draco rated it a success. They talked that night and agreed it was time to move forward. They would do it during Sunday dinner. With Harry coming over for dinner every night and spending the weekends with the family, it was obvious they were more than friends. Scorp and Nysus were old enough to figure out something was going on and as the parents, Draco and Harry wanted to tell them before they guessed.

Draco waited until they were finishing up a dessert of berry tart with cream, before calling for attention, "Everyone, Harry and I have something we need to tell you."

"Yes Father?" Scorp replied with his best Pureblood manners.

"What is it Draco?" Narcissa asked.

Cori nodded in agreement, while Nysus merely stared mutely.

"Harry and I are dating. He's my boyfriend and I am his boyfriend," Draco announced.

"No! You can't do this!" Nysus screamed, jumping up from his chair.

"Calm down Nysus, or you will be sent to your room without having your say," Narcissa scolded, motioning for the child to sit.

Draco looked sternly at his younger son, daring the child to continue the outburst. Nysus turned red in the face, his lips contorted into a scowl, but sat. Draco turned to Narcissa and asked, "Mother, do you have anything you wish to say?" He already knew what his mother would say and he felt it was best to start with supportive comments.

"You are an adult, Draco, and free to date whoever you choose. I think Mr. Potter will make an excellent match for you. Congratulations," Narcissa replied politely, a smile quirking up the corners of her mouth.

"Thank you, Mother. Cori, do you have anything to say?" Draco asked, turning to his daughter.

"More berries?" Cori asked.

"No more berries. You had enough dessert. I was asking if you have anything to say about me dating Harry here," Draco replied.

"Harry give me berries?" Cori asked.

Harry looked down at the last few bites of his unfinished dessert and considered passing them over. He looked at Draco for permission, wondering if the child was allowed to eat until she was full, or if she was like Dudley and would gorge herself until she was sick. Draco shook his head, indicating that it was the latter, so Harry replied, "Sorry Cori, but your father said that you can't have any more berries."

"Aww," Cori protested.

"Scorpius, would you like to say something?" Draco asked, turning to his oldest.

"Father, do you deem Harry Potter worthy of the Malfoy family?" Scorp asked politely.

"Yes, I do," Draco answered.

Scorp shrugged, leaving just Nysus to go.

Draco turned to Nysus and asked, "Dionysus, do you have anything to say?"

"I don't think he's worthy of the Malfoy family. He's the son of a Muggleborn. His blood is impure," Nysus answered, doing his best to maintain his cool.

"Actually, we found out recently that he is not the son of a Muggleborn. His mother was in fact the daughter of an Incubus and a Muggle, making her a Halfblood. Harry is the son of a Halfblood and a Pureblood, making him a Pureblood. Do you understand that, Nysus?" Draco asked.

"What's an Incubus again?" Nysus asked.

"An Incubus is a wizard with a virus that allows them to inhabit other people's dreams," Draco answered. "The virus can only be transmitted from parent to child, so he is not contagious in the sense that a Werewolf or a Vampire is."

"And how do you know his, what, grandfather? Is one?" Nysus asked.

"Because Harry has been diagnosed with the virus, from his mother's side. If she was Muggleborn, then she couldn't have the virus. Her mother was definitely a Muggle, so in order for Lily Potter to have the virus, she must have had a father with the virus. Therefore she was a Halfblood," Draco lied.

"Fine, but do you not think that the Malfoy family should avoid contamination with the Incubus infection?" Nysus asked.

"No, I do not. The Malfoy family has a history of marrying spouses with the virus. Furthermore, I have already produced two heirs who are virus free. Thus the Malfoy line cannot be contaminated with the virus," Draco answered, telling the partial truth. His third child did have the virus, but he hoped to brush over that fact.

Nysus blinked as he thought about it, before turning to Narcissa and asking, "Grandmother, is this true?"

Draco felt a wave of relief that none of the children seemed to have caught his omission regarding Cori.

"Yes, Dionysus, it is. I myself come from a family with the occasional Incubus in it and your grandfather married me," Narcissa answered.

Nysus sighed in defeat on that point.

"Do you have any other objections, Dionysus, or are you satisfied?" Draco asked.

"I have more." Nysus paused, getting his thoughts in order, before continuing, "Harry Potter is the Savior of the Light. He would have us turn our backs on Pureblood customs and marry freely with Muggleborns. The Malfoy family has always been true to Pureblood customs and does not marry Muggleborns. I don't think he'd be a good representative for the family."

"Nicely spoken son, but again you are incorrect. The unofficial Malfoy moto is to always land on the winning side and on top. Our family adopted the Pureblood beliefs in public, after the International Statute of Secrecy banned us from maintaining our relationship with the Royal family and the Muggle upper class. Before then, we freely exchanged with them, including marriage. After the ban, we have continued to send them our Squibs and take in their Squib-born wizards. We also marry Halfbloods into the family on a regular basis, to prevent inbreeding. Inbreeding causes all sorts of medical conditions and has led to the decline of many formerly prominent Wizarding families. Therefore the Malfoy family presents itself as conforming to Pureblood culture, when in fact we have always straddled the edge. We must continue to straddle the edge, in order to ensure we are in the perfect position to switch sides if the wind blows in the other direction," Draco explained.

"But Harry Potter is too far on the side of the Light!" Nysus protested. "We'll fall right off the edge and become Muggle-lovers."

"We already are Muggle-lovers. The wind has shifted and the time to jump sides has come and gone. Our family is now toting the popular Muggle-friendly views of the Light. Harry Potter will help us gain favor in this new society and bring the Malfoy family back into prominence. This relationship is the perfect move for the family," Narcissa reasoned.

Nysus pouted at being thwarted.

"Nysus, do we not go out into Muggle-society every weekend?" Draco asked and Nysus nodded. "Do we all not enjoy Muggle entertainment and food when we do so?" Again, Nysus nodded. "Have you not requested to join a Muggle children's theater club?" Nysus nodded again, but more sharply this time, realizing the implied hypocrisy. "You are aware that joining this club would require you to interact with Muggles on a regular basis, are you not?"

"Yes Father," Nysus drawled, annoyed with the current turn in the conversation.

"And how exactly do you propose to act if and when you join this club?" Draco asked another.

"Like a star!" Nysus answered, a bit of excitement shining through.

"Besides stealing the show. How do you plan on acting towards the Muggles?" Draco clarified.

Nysus groaned, his scowl returning. "Like a proper gentleman, on my best behavior. I promise not to tell them about magic or make fun of them for being Muggles," he drawled in a bored tone, clearly repeating back something he'd been told many times.

"Good. Now if that is all, I would like to commend you all for your manners and elocution. You have all done well in a difficult adult discussion and I'd like to offer you a reward."

Nysus wanted to object and insist that he did have more to say. Harry Potter was an ugly stupid monster and his father was crazy for even considering the match. But he knew such objections would get him nowhere besides a grounding and probably nix his chance of joining the Muggle theater club. He still wasn't sure that he wanted to go, since it required letting Harry Stupid Potter take him, but he didn't want to get it taken away before he'd even decided. In the end he sighed in defeat and didn't say anything.

"We have all been invited to meet Harry's family, including George Weasley of Weasley Wizard Wheezes, next Sunday. George Weasley will be putting on a demonstration of his newest Whiz Bangs and other fun products," Draco announced.

"But his family is dead," Nysus objected.

"My birth parents are dead, but I've been adopted into the Weasley family. They have lots of kids your age, so it will be great fun," Harry replied cheerfully.

"We are not kids, we are children. No hooves, see?" Scorp asked, holding up his hands like he was a goat, to prove his point.

"Sorry, children," Harry agreed. "Do you want to go? George has promised an extra special sneak peak on what promises to be the most sought after Christmas present this year."

"This sounds like a punishment. Why would we want to go to the Weasley's? We have a yard too," Nysus protested, his arms crossed, trying to be difficult. He wasn't going to admit that it sounded cool.

"You do not have to go, if you do not wish to, Nysus. But you cannot stay home, unless your Grandmother is willing to watch you," Draco replied.

"Grandmother?" Nysus asked pleadingly.

"Sorry Dionysus, but I have tea to attend with Great Grandmother Black. You could go with me if you would like," Narcissa said.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Nysus grumbled to himself and slumped back in his chair. Great Grandmother Black was totally lame and completely awful. Her house smelled of Kneazle piss and mildew, she was too old to move, and she always yelled at him and said he did everything wrong. He hated her almost as much as he hated Harry Stupid Potter. "May I be excused?" he practically growled in frustration.

"Yes," Draco replied, wanting to forestall the outburst that was imminent if he insisted on having this out right this minute.

Nysus jumped up from the table and ran from the room, eager to get away.

Draco looked after his middle child and sighed in disappointment, before turning to his oldest. "Scorp, what do you think? Would you like to go?"

"There are boys my age?" Scorp asked.

"Yes, my godson, Teddy, is only a little more than a year older than you. He's away for his first year at Hogwarts, but I will be fetching him from school for the weekend," Harry answered. Parents weren't supposed to take their children home on weekends unless it was an emergency. He thought finding out that he had three children he didn't know about counted as an emergency and he wanted Teddy to meet them, so he had arranged with McGonagall and Andromeda for Teddy to come home next weekend. "And Fred, George's son, is seven." He added the last, in case Scorp were to pass the information along to Nysus. Maybe Nysus would be more interested in going if the child knew there would be other boys the same age there.

Scorp nodded, but said nothing.

"Cori, do you want to go to the party with Harry and me?" Draco asked, turning to his youngest.

'Yay! Party! Cake?" Cori asked.

"Maybe, I don't rightly know," Harry answered.

"Cake," Cori demanded.

"I will find out, but there will be some form of sweet for sure," Harry promised.

"De-er?" Cori asked.

"Yes, dessert," Harry confirmed.

Cori nodded and said, "Okay."

"Great, then next Sunday, Harry, Scorp, Cori, and I will be going to the Weasleys. With any luck, Nysus will choose the Weasleys over Great Grandmother Black and he will go too," Draco concluded, reaching out to Harry and squeezing his boyfriend's hand. This had gone as well as he could hope.

* * *

Author's Note: Next will be the party with the Weasleys!

Please Review!


	12. Chapter 12

Sunday at the Weasleys was a bit tense, Draco taking the brunt of strange looks from Harry's family. None of them knew what really had happened and the truth was worse than their suspicions, so it could've been a lot worse. The four who Harry had told Draco's lie to, Ron, Hermione, Molly, and Arthur, had the most pro-Draco attitude and tried to get the others to accept Draco and the children. But no one actually said anything, sticking to the funny looks. Looks Draco could live with.

Harry could understand the reluctance of the adults to embrace a Malfoy, but he didn't expect problems from the children. He'd spent most of Saturday with Teddy, explaining that he had a new boyfriend who had three children. He was serious about Draco and wanted Teddy to get to know his boyfriend and the rest of the Malfoy family. Being elven, Teddy bought the story, just happy to be home, since he was dreadfully homesick from being away at Hogwarts.

When Harry asked Teddy to befriend Scorp, Teddy agreed. Teddy was basically a good kid and he wasn't part of the conflict. He did as he was asked and tried to make friends with the oldest Malfoy boy. But just because Teddy and Scorp were getting along okay didn't mean the party was all smooth sailing; not hardly.

Half of the problem was Fred, who Harry had asked to befriend Nysus. The other half of the problem was naturally Nysus, who was always going to be the hardest to appease. At no point did Nysus even agree to go, instead waiting until the last minute to tell Narcissa to go to Great Grandmother Black's without him, eliminating his option of not going to the Weasleys. Nysus made it clear by his grumblings that he was only going to the Burrow by default, not by choice.

The initial interactions between the children had gone as well as could be expected and Harry had begun to hope. Scorp and Teddy seemed to be getting on alright and went off with Nysus, Fred, and the other boys. Cori was shy, even around three-year-old Rose, and wouldn't budge from Draco's lap. But Hermione had Harry's back, sitting down next to Draco with Rose on her lap and reading the girls a fairytale. Then Draco had pulled out new princess costumes for Cori, Rose, and the other three young girls in the Weasley family, all in the correct sizes. Being three, Cori and Rose were soon dressed up and playing pretend.

Audrey, Percy's wife, was in the middle of showing the group of five young girls, two of which were her own, how to string large beads onto a string to make princess necklaces, when they first heard the commotion. There was yelling and screaming and then all of the older children, both boys and girls, including Nysus, Fred, Teddy, and Scorp, were rushing in the front door.

"What's going on?" Arthur asked, being one of the adults closest to the door and therefore realizing something was wrong first.

"Fred?" Angelina asked concerned, rushing forward and removing her son's hand away from the freshly black eye it was covering. The child's face was red and he was crying. "What happened?"

Fred pointed an accusing finger at Nysus and screamed out, "He did it!"

"Nysus, what did you do?" Draco asked, standing up and handing Cori over to Harry.

Harry stood behind Draco, wanting to help, but at the same time scared that interference from him when it came to Nysus might make things worse.

Nysus started a rapid and unintelligible rant that seemed to be accusing Fred of having said something about his father.

"Calm down," Draco instructed, stopping his son. "Breathe." Nysus took a deep breath, let it out, and then took several calmer breaths. "Now start from the beginning. What happened?"

"He called you a fairy!" Nysus exclaimed, pointing a finger at Fred, who was now being doted on by a bustling Molly with an icepack. "And he said that you're a girl!"

Draco looked from Nysus, to Fred, back to Nysus, before settling on Scorp.

"He did," Scorp confirmed.

Draco nodded at Scorp and looked back to Nysus. "One Weasley calls me names so you hit him?" Draco asked, disapproval evident in his tone.

"And he said he doesn't know how you could've made us, because you are a sissy and only real men, like his dad, can make a baby," Nysus added.

"That still does not give you the right to hit him; you are to come and tell an adult and not take matters into your own hands," Draco replied.

"And he said that Scorp and I are lying about not having a mother. He said that everyone has a mum and that ours probably took one look at us and wanted nothing to do with us. Tell him he's wrong, Father, please," Nysus begged.

"Of course he's wrong, Nysus, you and I both know that. He comes from a very different family than our own and has no idea that when you have as much money as we do, anything is possible. I wanted children, but did not want a witch to go with them, so I made you. If you had brought this to my attention before hitting the child, we could have talked through it and I could have set him straight. Now I think it would be best if we go and you will have to have a timeout for your actions," Draco answered.

"But Father! It's not my fault! He provoked me!" Nysus protested.

"Draco, it does sound like Fred provoked him," Harry whispered into Draco's ear.

"You stay out of it! He told me that you put him up to it! Said that you said that I'm a baby and can't make friends for myself, so you paid him to watch me!" Nysus accused, pointing at Harry.

"I didn't pay him," Harry rebutted. "I merely asked him to be friendly to you."

"See, Father, he confirms it! If Potter hadn't put him up to it, he wouldn't have kept bugging me when I was trying to play with Dominique and Roxanne and the other girls!" Nysus shouted.

"You were playing with Dominique and Roxanne?" Harry asked surprised. He hadn't expected Nysus to get on with the girls and not the boys. When he looked to the two young girls in question, they nodded.

"Fred was jealous, because Nysus was playing with us and not him," Roxanne confirmed.

"Don't make him go Grandma Molly; tell his dad to let him stay!" Dominque pleaded to her grandmother. "We were playing house and he was playing the dad. None of the other boys will play with us!"

"Please Grandma?" Roxanne added.

"Yeah, we want him to stay and play," Victoire, the oldest of the girls and the tallest of the children, put in. "Fred was being a jerk and I would've punched him too!"

"George hasn't begun the show and I haven't even served lunch," Molly said, reminding them all of the festivities that had yet to start.

"Perhaps both boys should take a timeout here and then be allowed to get back to playing, separately," Arthur suggested.

"Draco, can't you give him another chance?" Harry asked, feeling guilty for trying to arrange a friend for Nysus and in the process messing things up.

"Alright, but Nysus and I either need to take a short trip home for this timeout or we need a private place to talk," Draco replied.

Molly took that as her cue to step in. "Of course! Let me show you a room you can use."

Draco took Nysus by the shoulder and followed Molly upstairs.

"Cori, do you want to go with us or stay here and play?" Harry asked the toddler still in his arms.

Cori pointed after Draco, so Harry followed up the stairs.

"Can I stay and play?" Scorp called after his father.

"Yes, go ahead," Draco replied, before disappearing at the top of the stairs.

"Come on, let's go back outside," Teddy suggested, pulling Scorp towards the door. Scorp agreed and went with the older boy.

Meanwhile, Molly showed Harry and the rest of the Malfoys to one of the now vacant rooms that used to belong to her many grown children. The room was set up as a guest bedroom with a bed and a desk chair. Molly left, shutting the door behind her, as Draco sat Nysus on the bed, looking down at his son. Harry took the chair, Cori on his lap.

"Dionysus, do you understand why I am upset with you?" Draco asked in a stern voice.

"Because I hit the darker Weasley," Nysus answered, sounding rather put upon.

"You gave him a black eye, son. You hurt him. We were invited over to his grandparents' house to see a show put on by his father and you repay their kindness by beating up their child. It doesn't matter that he said that to you, after you hit him. Now his parents will be much more likely to let him get away with saying all of those horrible things," Draco clarified.

Nysus nodded solemnly.

"That boy said some really awful things to you. Is there anything you want to talk about?" Draco continued.

"He called you a fairy and a sissy, but you're not, are you?" Nysus asked.

"Of course not. I am gay. That means I like wizards, not witches, and if I ever get married, it will be to a man. There is nothing girly about being gay. People who are uncomfortable sometimes use derogatory terms like fairy and sissy to put us down, but just because they call me names, doesn't make me any less of a wizard. Lots of great wizards, like Harry here, are gay," Draco answered.

"Albus Dumbledore was gay too," Harry added. "Most people know that there is nothing wrong with it. Fred shouldn't have said any of that to you, because he's wrong."

Nysus nodded, for once not taking the opportunity to deny Harry's greatness. "And he said that only a mother and a father could make a baby, not a father by himself."

"It is true that no one can make a baby by themselves, but like I told you before: wealth has its advantages. I enlisted help to make you and your brother and your sister." Draco was careful with the partial truths, trying to bring to mind the story he'd told the children many times before, without directly lying to them. In all likelihood he'd end up eating his words when it came time to tell the children about Harry being their dad.

"He said it's not natural for two wizards to be together. He said normally it's a boyfriend and a girlfriend, a mum and a dad," Nysus added.

"With straight couples. Again, there is nothing wrong with being gay. Is there a reason these statements bother you so much?" Draco asked.

"I don't want to be like that jerk. I think I might want to be like Scorp and marry a wizard," Nysus said.

Harry's mouth momentarily fell open in shock at hearing this. Not that he had a problem with one or two of his children being gay, but he had never considered it. He recovered quickly and not wanting Nysus to feel self-conscious about it, he closed his mouth and tried to look approving. His parents hadn't lived long enough to find out that their only son was gay, but he hoped that if they did, they would've approved.

"You can do that. You can marry a wizard if you want and if you need help making a child, we will use our wealth to make it happen," Draco said reassuringly. "But you don't have to decide now and I wouldn't hold your brother to that; he could change his mind and that is fine too."

"Good. Boys are icky though," Nysus hedged, making a sour face as he thought about Fred.

"Then marry a witch. A Malfoy can marry whoever he wants," Draco replied.

Nysus nodded, apparently satisfied.

"Is that all?" Draco asked. Again Nysus nodded. "Alright, you can start your timeout now. Seven minutes without playing. When you go back downstairs, I want you to stay away from that boy and to come tell me if anyone is bothering you."

Nysus nodded.

* * *

When the timeout was over, they all rejoined the party downstairs. Molly shortly announced that dinner was served, after which George put on his show. The kids had a good time, Nysus staying away from Fred and sticking with the girls. Harry was glad they'd stayed. The fact that he hadn't taken Fred's side seemed to give Harry a bit of credit with Nysus, who didn't glare at him for the rest of the day. Harry was only sorry that Fred had gotten hurt in the trade.

After the show, Harry volunteered to help George clean up. While restoring burnt clumps of grass to their formerly green state, he took the opportunity to apologize to Fred's dad, who was nearby dismantling the stage. "Sorry my kid hit your kid," he said.

"Angie told me about that. He's not your kid though, he's Malfoy's, so you have nothing to be sorry for, except for dating a bloody Malfoy," George replied with a chuckle.

George didn't know that Nysus really was Harry's kid and Harry couldn't tell George. Instead Harry focused on being pissed at the latter statement. "It wasn't Draco's fault. It was mine, for asking Fred to give Nysus a chance. I thought that they would get on, because they have a lot in common. They both like mischief and getting into stuff. I shouldn't have interfered; I should've let Nysus make his own friends."

"Nysus," George snorted in amusement, before continuing, "another ridiculous name, typical Malfoy."

"It's short for Dionysus and it suits him," Harry retorted, growing increasingly angry at George. He may have found the name off the first time he heard it, but after looking up the meaning and getting to know a bit more about his middle child, it had grown on him. Silently he told himself that George didn't know that the child was his and to calm down, before he gave it away.

"Dionysus, right. And how is that any better?"

"Lay off of Draco, he did nothing wrong here. You don't hear him complaining about what you named your kids, do you?"

George shrugged and changed the subject. "You had a lot in common with Draco when you were kids and you two didn't exactly get on either."

"Oh, I couldn't stand him," Harry agreed.

"What changed?"

Harry thought back to the beginning, when it had only been about the sex. The feelings had come over time, but the brilliant dream sex had started it all. "The sex," he admitted and George smiled in response. "I am quite serious about him now though, which is why it's so important to me that his children like me. We wouldn't have told them if we weren't serious. I hope that Nysus and your Roxanne can continue being friends."

"Yeah, about that, I don't really want Roxy hanging out with that Malfoy kid. What if he gets mad at her next? Is he going to punch her too?" George asked rhetorically.

"No, Draco and I talked to him about not turning to violence and coming to an adult next time he has a problem. Besides, your kid started it. Did you hear the things Fred said to Nysus?" Harry asked angrily. Normally he loved George, but not in this moment.

"No, but Angie said it was something negative about Malfoy. I have a lot of negative things to say about Malfoy, so I figure it was probably all true." George shrugged, brushing aside the seriousness of the situation.

Harry stopped his work on the grass, boring into George with his eyes as he replied, "He said a bunch of derogatory anti-gay stuff about Draco. I might've thrown a punch too when I was younger if someone said all that about my dad."

"Oh." George's eyes narrowed as he realized the implications, since Harry was also gay. "Oh! You don't think? No! Angie and I never said anything bad about you or anything negative about being gay. Fred might have overheard us talking about Malfoy… you know, how awful he was in school, how much you used to hate him, how unbelievable that you were with him." Taking in the hard look on Harry's face, George decided it was best to abandon that line of conversation and move along. "But neither of us ever said anything bad about him being a dude. We're fine with you liking blokes, Harry, just not that bloke."

"Then where did he get all of that stuff from?" Harry asked accusingly.

George shrugged again. "Probably the other kids at school. They pick things up. I'll have a talk with him about it."

"You do that and if I find out that you are feeding him negative crap about Draco, then it will be me punching you next time." Harry hadn't meant for this conversation to turn threatening, but George was really pissing him off.

George put his hands up in front of his chest and said, "Whoa, back off, Harry. We're still cool, aren't we? I'm not going to interfere with you getting some hot tail."

Harry really felt like punching George now. It was only the fact that that would be setting a bad example for Nysus that stopped him. "Fuck off," he said, abandoning the grass and stomping away. He went a few feet, before turning around and adding, "And with a dad like you, I don't think I want Nysus hanging out with your daughter anymore." Nysus might get mad if the child knew that Harry was once again trying to determine who his friends were, but in the moment, Harry didn't care. He didn't mean it; he just wanted to get back at George for being a prick.

"Fine with me," George replied and went back to tearing down the stage from the earlier show.

* * *

Later that night when Harry was alone with Draco back in Draco's bedroom at Malfoy Manor, he asked, "Are the boys gay?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Scorp's been going through this phase. He said he is going to grow up and marry a wizard. Lately I think he's changed his tune. He hates talking about it, but I can tell from the blush on his cheeks that he has a crush on this one Muggle actress he likes," Draco replied with a shrug. "This is the first Nysus has ever said anything, but it seemed out of anger. Does it bother you?"

"Not really, it just surprised me. I didn't realize I was gay until I was practically twenty and here Nysus is not even seven yet and already saying he wants to marry a man, like it's no big deal," Harry replied.

"It's not."

"I'm glad." They were silent a minute, before Harry added, "Does Nysus not have any friends?"

"He has friends. What gave you that idea?" Draco asked.

"Well he didn't make friends with any of the boys and he said that boys are gross…"

"But he did make friends with the girls, especially Dominique and Roxanne. He's always gotten along better with girls. He tolerates Scorp, but I think that's just because they're brothers. He doesn't get on well with other boys. If you had asked me, I would have told you not to bother initiating a friendship between him and that boy."

"Aren't you worried about him? He should make friends with other boys his age."

"No, I was the same when I was his age. I've been friends with Pansy and Daphne since as long as I can remember, but the other boys, like Theo and Zacharias, thought I was bossy and we didn't get on. That's why my father arranged for me to make friends with Vince and Greg; they didn't mind that I was bossy."

"You _were_ bossy," Harry teased.

"Shut up, you love me anyway," Draco retorted.

"Yeah, I do," Harry said, leaning in for a kiss.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you all have a merry Christmas! Please Review!


	13. Chapter 13

The following Wednesday was Harry's second visit with Healer Greg Goyle. The first meeting was a straight forward information session in which Harry learned about the virus he supposedly had, obtained a few pamphlets, and agreed to a regimen of suppressant potion. The only thing that even had him worried was when Goyle took a cheek swab to isolate his strain of the virus. Negative results were inevitable, but the test took two weeks to incubate, so he wouldn't have to face up to them until the second visit.

Now that Harry was walking into said second visit, he was far more nervous about the whole thing. He couldn't help fearing that he was about to be found out, despite the fact that his healer was Goyle. Draco hadn't known that Harry would need his virus isolated to determine the source and the rogue Incubus who had allegedly fathered his mother. He'd told Draco about the development, but Draco had told him not to worry about it and to cooperate fully. Draco was certain that as long as Harry's healer was Goyle, there was nothing to worry about.

Harry waited with apprehension and dread in the examination room for Goyle to see him. He paced back and forth, tapped his foot repeatedly, picked at his nails, and then repeated the cycle. He was an ex-Auror trained to keep his cool under pressure, but this situation was not on the list of scenarios he'd been placed in before. Yes, Goyle was still as dim-witted as the git had been in school, but Ron wasn't stupid and Ron would be waiting for these test results. Bottom line was that he had a lot more riding on this than a case or a job, because Draco's future and his children's lives were at stake. He couldn't fuck it up and there were no do-overs or second chances.

Goyle came into the room, catching Harry mid-pace, but didn't notice, because his nose was stuck in Harry's chart. He didn't look up as he asked, "You have been on the three ounce dosage of the suppressant potion for two weeks now?"

"Yes, every twelve hours. I haven't missed a dose," Harry confirmed, slightly relieved to be tossed a softball to start. He had taken the potion as directed, so that was not where he would be caught.

"Where have you been getting it?" Goyle asked.

Draco brewed the stuff on a regular basis for Narcissa, but had refused to supply Harry, fearing that it might look suspicious. If it were known that Draco was capable of brewing it, then that might lead to questions. It was better for Harry to purchase it from an outside source, giving the appearance that Draco was incapable of brewing it.

"The apothecary in Diagon Alley," Harry answered truthfully, opening up the file folder he'd brought with him to produce his receipts, which he thrust at Goyle. "I have all of my receipts."

"Very good. Unfortunately I am not allowed to take your word for it; I have to test your blood to determine the potion levels in your system. This will also allow me to gauge how quickly your body processes the potion and therefore what your ideal dose is," Goyle replied, taking the folder with the receipts for his report. Because of the recent court case against Draco, the report would be sent to three separate offices of the Ministry: the Wizenagamot, the Child Well-Fare Division, and the Auror Department.

Harry agreed and allowed Goyle to cast the detection spell. It showed unusually high potion levels, so Goyle ordered the potion dose cut down. Harry cringed at hearing this, because he knew precisely the cause of the high levels in his system: he didn't have the virus and those without the virus lacked the system for breaking down the potion that those with the virus had. In the future, he'd have to take less than he reported taking, to avoid Goyle noticing the discrepancy. He promised Goyle he'd cut his potion dose in half, but he told himself he'd take only a swig of it, so that Goyle would have to raise the dose next visit. Lowering it a second time might raise suspicion.

"How have the side effects been? I imagine that you must feel horrendous with the potion levels in your system," Goyle said.

Harry had been about to say he had no side effects, but upon hearing Goyle's statement, he caught himself and changed his tune. It was only in that moment that he realized that without the virus, there was nothing for the potion to act on, and therefore no potential for side effects. "Oh yeah, it makes my head feel like it's in a cloud. I can't think properly for hours after taking it. I have to take it early in the morning, so that my mind can clear in time for work." Luckily, he had firsthand experience with how the potion affected Draco, so he lied accordingly.

"We should be able to reduce those symptoms. Most likely it is the result of the high levels of potion in your system. Once we find the right balance, the side effects should diminish. We want to stop you from entering Draco's dreams, not stop you from thinking. There are some people who are severely affected by the potion even at the lowest necessary dosage, but they tend to be those who have a particularly active form of the virus. Those witches and wizards have to go the alternative route of marriage and a bonding ceremony, to insure that they don't violate anyone's dreams. Obviously from the levels of potion in your system and your two negative tests for the virus, you do not fall into that category. I don't think you have anything to worry about," Goyle reassured.

"Okay," Harry replied.

"Is there anything else you would like to know?" Goyle asked.

"Um, Draco and I've talked about doing the bonding ceremony. If I go that route, do I have to continue the potion? Would I still have to see you?" Harry asked in return.

"No, to both. Some Incubi and Succubi prefer to continue taking the potion after bonding, because they have grown accustomed to how it feels or because their spouse dislikes being visited in his or her dreams, but that is a personal choice. As far as the Ministry is concerned, you need do only one or the other."

Harry nodded.

"Do you have any other questions?"

"No."

"Alright then there is just the matter of your virus culture; it was negative, so we will have to try it again. Given that you seem to have a relatively inactive virus, it could take numerous tries," Goyle said.

Harry was relieved to hear that a negative culture at this point was not cause for concern, but at the same time, he felt dread building in the pit of his stomach as he thought about the fact that Goyle wanted to take another swab for another culture that would come back negative. How many negatives would it take before someone grew suspicious? "Do you do the cultures in house, or outsource them?" he asked, wanting to know if he could use Goyle's incompetency as an excuse with Ron.

"I do them all myself."

Harry sighed in relief. There was no telling how many negative tests Ron would be willing to blame on Goyle fucking up.

Goyle took another swab for virus culture. Then he made another appointment with Harry for two weeks. He was about to send Harry on his way, when he surprised Harry with a personal question, "My wife, Tracey, wants to know if we are still invited to the usual party at Malfoy Manor this Halloween?"

"Does Draco have a Halloween party every year, then?" Harry asked surprised. He'd completely forgotten about the holiday with everything else that had been going on. Draco hadn't mentioned Halloween once, even though it was coming up soon. The only celebration Draco was gearing up for was Nysus' upcoming birthday.

"No, he throws Dionysus a birthday party every Halloween. Nysus was born on Halloween, or didn't you know?"

Harry hadn't made the connection before, but now that he thought about it, the day the party was scheduled for was Halloween. "Oh, yeah, I know, er, I just wasn't thinking. Yes, Draco is planning a birthday party. He plans on inviting all of the usual people plus the Weasley children who are around Nysus' age. I'm sure Draco will get the invite out to you any day now. He's been working on the invitations."

"Great! Greg Jr. will be so excited to hear it and little Vince loves parties," Goyle replied.

"Greg Jr. and little Vince?" Harry asked curiously.

"My sons. Greggy is four and Vinny is two."

"Good. If that's all, I must be going," Harry concluded.

Harry went straight to the Manor to see Draco, despite the fact that he'd had dinner with the Malfoys just before the appointment with Goyle. Draco wasn't in his room, so Harry went in search of him on the second floor, finding him in Nysus' room, reading the child a bedtime story. Harry waited in the doorway, listening to Draco read. Nysus liked all kinds of stories and this was one of a popular children's series about a boy with a pet dragon. Draco's voice was animated and entertaining, captivating both Nysus and Harry as he read.

Draco read until Nysus yawned and had trouble keeping his eyes open. Then there was a kiss and a soft, "Sweet dreams," before he turned to Harry, acknowledging his boyfriend's presence. He silently led Harry upstairs to his bedroom, shutting the door behind him. "Well, what happened? How did it go?"

"The culture was negative, so he took another swab," Harry replied, leading with what had him most concerned.

"Was he suspicious?" Draco asked.

"No, but it's only a matter of time. I was thinking that maybe I should tamper with the culture. If I switch my sample with that of someone who actually has the virus, then Goyle won't have to keep swabbing me every two weeks and Ron won't get suspicious."

"No." Draco's tone was firm and forceful, his eyes boring into Harry's. "You will do no such thing. You are Harry Potter, war hero and Savior of the Wizarding World; the scandal it would create if you were caught tampering with your test results! No, we cannot risk it. You will do nothing and continue to cooperate fully with Greg. He isn't suspicious, so there is no imminent risk of danger."

"But for how long? Eventually someone's going to notice that all of my cultures come back negative. What if you gave me a sample from your own cheek? Then the sample couldn't possibly already be in the system, so there's no way I could get caught."

"Absolutely not! That is an even worse plan," Draco hissed critically.

"Why? What could go wrong?" Harry wondered.

"Worst case scenario, they realize that I am the source of the sample and that I am the Incubus. If that happened, they would then order me to produce a sample or get tested for the virus, or both, and there is no way my tests would be negative. Best case scenario, they trace the virus back to my great great grandfather, Cygnus Black the second, the last member of the Black family to have admitted to being infected, and assume that he is also your maternal grandfather. He and his wife Violetta are also on the Potter family tree, the parents of Dorea Black, nee Potter. From there they might decide Dorea was secretly a Succubus and initiate an investigation into her and the rest of the family lines that joins you to her. Or, they might decide that you are super inbred, with Cygnus on your dad's side and on your mum's side too. And since he is also on my family tree, then that makes him present on our children's family tree in three separate places. That level of inbreeding is not accepted in the Malfoy family and might cause problems if and when it comes time to bond. I may be the Lord Malfoy, so I could get away with it, but do we really want everyone to think that our children are inbred?" Draco asked.

Harry shook his head, because not even the best case scenario sounded like a good choice. "What do we do?"

"We wait and you keep giving samples and maintain your cool. Eventually Greg will mess up and either accidentally switch your culture with someone else's, or contaminate your sample with someone else's. He has many other patients with the virus, so there are many potential samples floating around his office. Eventually one of your tests will come back positive and the isolate will be sent along to the Aurors for further analysis. If the source is from a line with potential to be the rogue Incubus active way back when your mum was born, then problem solved. If not and the Aurors realize that the sample was contaminated, then Greg goes back to trying to culture your virus and you are not to blame. There is no potential for scandal if we rely on Greg to make the mistake," Draco explained.

"If you're sure…"

"I am. Now tell me about the rest of the visit; I want all of the details."

Harry nodded and recounted word for word what he and Goyle had said to each other. Draco seemed encouraged by the fact that Goyle was not suspicious about any of it and that Harry had thought on his toes, giving Goyle answers that sounded right. The unusually high levels of suppressant potion in Harry's system during the appointment would probably be enough to explain away the next negative culture, because with that amount of potion, it was unlikely that there would be much live virus floating around. Thus they were free from suspicion for at least another month. And because they did want to bond as soon as the children were ready for such a leap, they would not have to avoid suspicion forever. Once they were bonded, there would still be repercussions associated with lying to Wizenagamot and hiding the infection from the Ministry, but the threat of Draco having to take the suppressant potion would be eliminated. They preferred not to ever be found out, but if they could just buy another six months or so, then they would be able to manage.

With all of the talk about the virus and being found out, Harry completely forgot about the part at the end of the appointment, when Goyle had asked about Nysus' birthday party.

* * *

Author's Note: Two visits down; they're safe for at least the first six months, I think…

Up next will be birthday party preparations. Happy holidays and don't drink and drive!

Please review!


	14. Chapter 14

That weekend Draco had all of the invitations ready for Nysus' party. Normally he would've owled them out weeks ago, but with all that had been going on, he was delayed. Plus, he thought that delivering them in person would be the perfect opportunity for Harry to meet all of his friends and family prior to the party. Because they wanted their children to get used to the idea of them dating before it became public knowledge and he knew that many of his friends were gossip whores, he had told only a few of them. These deliveries would come as a total shock to most of the invitees and he wanted to judge their reaction in person, so that he'd know who needed to be uninvited to the party. He did not want a scene at Nysus' seventh birthday party.

The family dressed nicely and started the circuit with the Goyle's, because as Harry's healer, Greg was one of the few people who knew. Draco had arranged their list in order of least likely to cause problems, to most, so that they wouldn't get bogged down at the beginning and the children wouldn't see the worst of the reactions. Those who were sure to object to the relationship would receive their invitations tomorrow, without the children present.

They flooed into the Goyle family home, landing in a parlor. Nysus was out first, invitation in hand, followed by Scorp, Draco, and Harry carrying Cori. Greg was waiting there with his wife Tracey and their two young boys.

"We will be delighted to attend your birthday party, Nysus, as usual," Greg said accepting the invitation.

"Party! Yay!" the older of the Goyle boys shouted, as he began running around the room hollering in excitement. The younger boy copied the older, except that there were no intelligible words in his excited yells. They were both large for their ages, a little taller than average and a lot wider, with brown hair and light brown eyes.

Draco stepped forward, clasped his hands around Greg's larger ones, looked Greg in the eye, and said, "Thank you. Your support means a lot to me Greg."

Greg nodded and said, "You're my best friend."

Draco smiled and replied, "And you will always be mine. Now if you will excuse us, we have a long list of people to see today."

Tracey stepped forward to hug Draco and whispered in his ear, "I'm so glad you finally found someone. It's about time."

Draco nodded, hugging Tracey back as he wondered how much the woman knew. He'd assumed Greg would tell his wife about Harry being an Incubus and the father of Draco's children, but if Greg had, then Tracey would've known that he'd found Harry ages ago. It was only now that he was keeping Harry. But if Tracey didn't know, he wasn't going to tell her, so he let the comment slide.

Next on their lists were Ron, Hermione, and their two children. They flooed into the small, cozy living room of Harry's best friends'. Again Nysus handed over the invitation, but with less excitement and more nervousness, because he didn't really know these people.

"A birthday party on Halloween? How wonderful! Thank you ever so much for inviting us!" Hermione said cheerfully taking the invitation.

"I know, right? Something happy to celebrate is just what Halloween needs to make it fun again," Harry agreed. For too many years Halloween had been about his parents' double murder. Now that he knew it was also the day his second child was born, he thought that it was a fitting coincidence. It was the day two people were stolen from him, but also the day one was given. He could think of no better way to honor his parents than to give them a grandchild. From now on he was determined to make Halloween a happy and fun-filled day for his son.

"Rosie, did you hear that? We are going to a party for Nysus," Ron said to his three-year-old daughter, who he was carrying on his hip.

"Yay! Princess party?" Rose asked excitedly.

"I do hope we are allowed to wear costumes," Hermione clarified Rose's question.

"Yes, absolutely. It's a costume party, right Nysus?" Harry asked, to get Nysus involved in the conversation.

"Yeah," Nysus answered, still unsure of the Weasleys, but beginning to realize that these ones were nice.

"Fantastic. Rose already has her princess dress picked out and I have the cutest little lion costume for Hugo," Hermione replied.

"This is going to be brilliant, isn't it Rose?" Ron asked, again to the toddler in his arms.

"Yep, bill-ant," Rose seconded with an enthusiastic nod.

Ron leaned in to Harry as he spoke in a quiet voice, "I have it from Bill that he and Fleur are really impressed with Draco. Apparently he apologized to Bill for Bill's face, even though he hadn't meant for Greyback to be let into the school that night. There should be no problems there. Percy will go along with whatever, as long as he's seen with you, to further his career at the Ministry. Ginny has to attend the usual holiday party with her team, so she can't come. George is still being a bit of a prick about it, but I think Angelina can get him to come around. Mum and Dad are on your side, of course."

"Thanks. It's good to hear it," Harry replied. This fit with his prior assessment of where the Weasley family stood on the matter of his relationship with Draco. He'd seen Bill and Fleur being friendly with Draco at last Sunday's get together, but he hadn't been aware of the apology Draco had given Bill. He wondered now when that had happened.

This time Harry hugged his friends and exchanged pleasantries, while Draco stood back. Hermione and then Ron didn't stop at hugging Harry and Cori, going on to hug Scorp and Nysus too. Draco was taken off guard, as first Hermione and then Ron with Rose, hugged him.

Then they were on to the cottage by the beach where Bill and Fleur Weasley lived with their three children. The Malfoy family flooed into the living room and repeated the process of Nysus handing over the invitation, this time giving it directly to Dominique, the girl his age. Scorp exchanged a few words with Victoire, the oldest girl. Luis, the little boy, said hello to Cori, but she hid her face in Harry's chest instead of returning the greeting. Fleur took the invitation from her daughter and said that they would all be happy to come. Bill, standing by his wife's side, seconded her sentiments.

After that they went to the Burrow to deliver an invitation to Molly and Arthur Weasley and then to Percy's house, to invite him and his family. That left only George and Angelina of the Weasley family, but instead of flooing into their home to invite the entire family, they flooed to a pub near their home, where Harry had arranged to meet Angelina and Roxanne, minus George and little Fred.

Nysus eagerly handed over the invitation to Roxanne saying, "We are going to have so much fun at my party! Father says it's going to be fabulous with a haunted house and everything! Even real ghosts!"

"I hope my dad lets me go," Roxanne said anxiously.

"Don't worry about him, Roxy. I will take care of your dad," Angelina said reassuringly.

"Thanks Angelina, I owe you one," Harry replied.

"Think nothing of it. I'm still appalled by what Fred said to your son," Angelina responded.

A short while later, Angelina and Roxanne left through the front door of the pub to walk home. The Malfoy children, needing a potty break, made a detour to the loo. Draco took Cori into a stall and Harry joined their boys at the urinals.

"Harry, why might Roxy's dad not let her come?" Nysus asked innocently. "She and Dominique are my favorite Weasleys. I don't want Fred to come, but Roxy is cool."

"Well after what Fred said to you, his dad and I sort of had a row. Sorry," Harry said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

"You had a row with your Weasley friend? Over me?" Nysus asked curiously.

"Yes. I didn't appreciate the things Fred said, so I had a talk with his dad, George, about it. I didn't like what George said and we had words. Erm, I sort of told him that I didn't want his kid around my kids."

"You said that?" Now Nysus' sounded astounded. Harry sticking up for him came as a huge surprise.

"Yes, I did. Fred had no right to say those things about your father. I expected George to apologize for his son and when he didn't, I got pissed.

Nysus nodded thoughtfully. He washed his hands next to Scorp and then waited for Draco and Cori to wash their hands. As the family walked together back to the fireplace, he announced, "Father, I've decided that I do want you to sign me up for the theater club."

"Are you sure? You do remember that Harry will be taking you by himself to a number of the meetings, do you not?" Draco asked.

Nysus nodded, but didn't say another word.

"Alright, then I will sign you up," Draco said to his son, before turning to Harry. "Now Harry, don't forget that you are not allowed to report on _any_ illegal or questionable material or activities you may be about to witness."

"I'm not an Auror anymore and I'm not on duty, but if I see a blatant violation, I _will_ be forced to pass the information along," Harry replied.

Draco groaned and said in a deprecating tone, "Gryffindors." He only hoped that all of his friends and family had heeded his warning to hide any and all illegal activities for the day.

They flooed to the home of Druella Black, Draco's grandmother on his mother's side. She was a tall, thin old woman, slightly stooped as she hobbled about with her cane. Her coloring was fair, like Narcissa's, but her hair was as curly as Andromeda's and Bellatrix's. She had the same heavily lidded eyes as her daughters, but they were pink, lashless, and engulfed with superfluous wrinkles. Her face was twisted into a harsh scowl, accentuating the wrinkles surrounding her small mouth. Still, she had a regal look to her, standing there in her designer filigreed robes, wearing enough diamonds to be royalty. She looked like she'd once been beautiful and could still be considered attractive, for her age, if only she would smile.

Draco greeted Druella enthusiastically. Scorp and Nysus were less enthusiastic, but still hugged the witch and returned warm greetings. Even Cori wiggled out of Harry's arms and ran to hug her great grandmother. Harry, however, hung back nervously awaiting what this woman might have to say to him.

Druella barked out orders to an elf, who then served tea, biscuits, sandwiches, and fruit slices to the gathering. The children sat down at the dining table and ate hungrily. Draco held out a chair for his grandmother, before sitting down himself. Only when Draco was seated, did Harry take the seat next to his boyfriend and help himself to a few sandwiches.

After lunch and at Draco's insistence, Nysus reluctantly handed over the invitation to his great grandmother. Being strict and mean spirited, she was not the sort of person one wanted at a children's party, but she was family and so had to be invited. On the up side, she did usually keep to herself at these things and always brought an expensive present. Even now she had a pile of new clothes, books, and toys for each of the children.

With the children engrossed in sorting through their new loot, Druella was free to turn her attention to Harry. She rapped him on the shoulder with her cane to get his attention and spoke with a sharp, graveled voice, "Potter!"

Harry turned and looked at the old witch. "Yes?"

"Do not think I am letting you off the hook. If I did not know that it was entirely my grandson's fault, I would skin you alive for letting him break up with you when he was pregnant, not once, but _thrice_. If you let him leave you again, I _will_ hurt you. Consider yourself warned." The first Druella said in a menacing tone, but the last three words were sickly sweet in a manner reminiscent of Bellatrix. She was intimidating, despite her age.

"I won't, I promise. He's not getting away this time," Harry replied.

Scorp gasped in surprise and exclaimed, "Three times!" Upon hearing his grandmother speak, he'd turned to watch her interaction with Harry. She often said things that were nonsense, but Harry hadn't denied knowing what she was talking about. Harry's response confirmed that Harry had dated Scorp's father on three different occasions.

Nysus turned to look then and gasped too, just now grasping what he'd overheard. "Father!? Is this true?"

"Yes, I told you that Harry and I dated before. We dated before Cori was born, before you were born, and before Scorp was born," Draco admitted, waiting expectantly to see if one of the children would put two and two together.

Harry meanwhile was caught up on the fact that Druella had just mentioned Draco being pregnant in front of the children and assumed that this was what a lot of the shock was about. "Now I know it's unusual, but there are some wizards who can become pregnant. Your father is one of the lucky few. There is nothing wrong with being born from a wizard. In fact, I think it makes you all even more special," he said.

Nysus turned to Harry and glared. "Duh. We know that," he said snidely.

"You know?" Harry asked in surprise.

"We have always known that we were made in Father's tummy," Scorp replied.

"It was obvious, wasn't it? Cori came from his tummy and we did too!" Nysus added, his tone snotty and annoying.

"If you knew, why didn't you tell me that back when I first questioned you about having a mother?" Harry asked.

"We _did_ tell you," Nysus replied.

"We told you that we don't have a mother, only Father," Scorp added.

"You didn't ask them if they came out of my tummy, did you?" Draco asked to clarify where precisely Harry had gone wrong in the questioning.

"No," Harry admitted. He marveled then that the children had known all along the answer to his inquiry. If only he'd asked the right question, then Draco wouldn't have ended up in jail.

"You've changed the subject on us!" Scorp accused, pointing at Harry.

"What?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Great Grandmother just said that you've dated Father three times before and you changed the subject. You're trying to cover something up!" Scorp accused again.

"No, I'm not. I didn't know that you knew about your father being the one who was pregnant, is all," Harry defended himself.

"We are not trying to cover up our past relationship, Scorpius. We informed you of it when we told you we are dating. This is our fourth go at it. The first three times I broke it off with Harry without giving him a reason, because I needed to go away to have each of you three. I didn't want him to know I had you or that I could even have children. Not every wizard can carry a child," Draco clarified, again wondering if this would be the moment one of his children realized the truth about Harry. He sighed in relief when he didn't see sudden realization on any of their faces. That was the good thing about children: they could be daft when it came to uncovering the truth, especially when it was something they never considered before.

Scorp nodded, Nysus crossed his arms and pouted, and Cori stuck her fingers in her mouth.

"Now, do you lot have any more questions, or can we move along to visit Great Grandmother Malfoy?" Draco asked.

"Great Grandmother Malfoy promised us Galumphing Gallywags!" Nysus exclaimed.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Scorp seconded.

The revelation about Harry and Draco's past relationship forgotten, the children hugged Druella and thanked her for their gifts.

Lucius' mother was also tall and regal in appearance, but her face was soft and her smile warm. She hugged Harry tightly, kissing him on the cheek in greeting, just as she did with Draco and each of her great grandchildren. Physically she bore a resemblance to her son, but in demeanor she was his polar opposite. She was like an upper class version of Molly and Harry liked her. The children liked the toys and sweets she gave them and Nysus was back to bubbling with excitement as he handed over the invitation for his party.

Having many more invitations to hand out, they had to keep going. Daphne and Theo Nott were next, along with their children and Daphne's younger sister Astoria and Astoria's children. The adults were surprised but unperturbed by Harry's presence at Draco's side, Theo even eyeing Harry with a glint of sudden understanding in his eye. Theo was a smart wizard and it was likely that he'd just figured out that Harry was the missing parent of Draco's children. If that was the case, then he'd know that one of the pair had to be an Incubus and knowing Draco the way he did, it was possible that his guess as to which one was correct. Draco would have to talk to Theo and either convince the wizard that Harry was an Incubus or not to tell anyone else the truth.

The Notts were followed by Blaise Zabini, his current girlfriend, and his four-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. Blaise was clearly a part-time father and in over his head with four children in his home, despite the brevity of the visit. He seemed ambivalent towards Harry's presence, only concerned about the possibility of the children breaking his precious antiques.

The first cold response Harry received was from Pansy, who eyed him skeptically as she stood next to her dour faced husband, Garrett Avery. Their daughter Primrose was a bright eyed six-year-old who was better looking than either of her parents. She was also Nysus' best friend and the two began to squeal in excitement as soon as he produced the invitation with a flourish.

"I ought to punch you in the nose," Pansy whispered to Harry, so that the children wouldn't hear. Draco, however, was standing right by Harry's side and did hear. Draco raised his eyebrow at his good friend and she stared him down in response, before caving. "But I guess if Draco is willing to forgive, I will save it for when you break his heart. Just know that I _will_ come after you if you hurt him."

"Right. Good to know," Harry said, unsure how else to respond to the blatant threat.

"Now that that is out of the way, can we expect the three of you to attend Nysus' party?" Draco asked as if Pansy threatening his boyfriend was the most natural thing in the world.

"Of course. Prim would never let us miss it," Pansy replied with a sickly sweet smile. "Would it be alright if Garrett drops her off and leaves? I'm afraid I might just vomit if I have to stay."

"That will be marvelous. You might want to get yourself looked at by a healer, if you are that ill," Draco teased.

"Oh don't worry about me, darling. I am told it is a natural response to looking at a Potter," Pansy replied with a smirk.

Draco's smile widened at the inside joke and he threw his head back and laughed.

"Huh?" Harry asked, confused by Draco's response to the insult. He'd been expecting Draco to have his back with Draco's friends and family, just like he'd had Draco's back with his own.

"I think it's the scar. Dreadfully disgusting, it is," Pansy fibbed.

Harry scowled.

Draco stopped laughing, schooling his merriment. "Ignore her, Harry. It's just a joke from our school days," he said.

"A joke about my scar making you nauseated?" Harry asked.

"Your scar among other things. It was mostly your Gryffindorness and your hero complex," Draco clarified.

"Right…" Harry drawled, unamused.

"Don't worry your ungroomed little head about it; it's a Slytherin thing," Pansy said to Harry and then turned to Draco. "You can't teach him to use a comb?"

"Thirty years in? I think not. I am not the sort to take up hopeless causes, you know that, Pansy." Pansy and Garrett chuckled at Harry's expense. "Anyway, if you are done insulting my boyfriend, I am afraid we must be going. We have more invitations to deliver," Draco announced. "Nysus, Scorp, come along now."

"But Father! I want to stay and play with Prim!" Nysus whined.

"You can floo over after dinner, if it is alright with her parents," Draco compromised and Pansy confirmed that it was fine with a nod. "But right now, we have more people to invite. You do want the rest of your friends to come to your party, do you not?"

Nysus grumbled at having his play cut short, but nodded in acquiescence.

There were another dozen pureblood families with children on the list, all of whom disliked Harry, but agreed that their children would attend the party.

Harry and the Malfoys went back to the Manor for dinner. Afterwards Nysus went back to the Avery home to play with Prim, while Scorp stayed and played with Nanny Crabbe's son Joshua. The nanny and her children had received invites the day before, along with Madam Lestrange, the tutor; this was the first year that all of Madam Lestrange's children were off at Hogwarts, so this was the first time she'd be going alone.

Nanny Crabbe watched Cori, leaving Harry and Draco free to visit another dozen homes to hand out invitations to witches and wizards who were far less pleasant.

Most of these people didn't have children the proper age to attend and with Harry's presence at the party guaranteed, they declined their invitations. The majority of the ones who did have children slammed their door on Draco, after proclaiming that their children were no longer allowed to play with the Malfoy children. A few, however, surprised Draco by being more accepting of Harry and agreeing to come. However, they left no doubt that they were coming for Nysus and wanted nothing to do with Harry.

Harry wasn't particularly upset, because he disliked the Pureblood arses just as much as they disliked him. Plus, they had yet to do Harry's friends and he was sure that come tomorrow, there was bound to be doors slammed in their face, because he had Draco on his arm. He hoped that his closest friends, Luna, Neville, Seamus, and Dean, would all be okay with it, but he didn't know if they would. Some of the people he'd become friends with during his time as an Auror he knew absolutely hated the Malfoys because of Lucius and would never accept Draco. But still, after all of the people they told today, it was bound to be in the papers soon, and he needed to tell the people he cared about sooner, rather than later.

* * *

Author's Note: What did you think of the friends and family's reactions? Up next will be a visit to Ron and Hermione's. Hermione will finally have taken the time to look into what is going on…

Sorry for the slight delay. All of a sudden a good story idea came to me and I had to stop my other stories to get the jist of it down before I forgot it. It's called The Ancient and Most Noble House of Black! It's another mpreg Drarry. Please go check it out.


	15. Chapter 15

At his healer appointment the following Wednesday, Harry learned that Goyle had failed to isolate the virus from his second culture. As Draco had predicted, Goyle was unconcerned, because the unusually high levels of suppressant potion in his system at the time the second sample was taken ought to result in unusually low levels of virus in the body. Goyle merely took a third sample and said he'd try again. And since the level of suppressant potion in Harry's system was now right at the optimum level, Goyle instructed Harry to continue with the current dose.

Ron, however, was less pleased to be kept waiting with no useable results for a month. He approached Harry at work and asked him to stop by his place Friday after work.

Discussing the virus with Ron and Hermione was about the last thing Harry wanted to do. His friends were smart and they could read him better than anyone else in the world, which made convincing them the hardest part of living a lie. But he was committed to taking the blame for Draco, he saw no way around lying to his friends, and he really was beginning to miss his best friends and their two children, so he went.

Hermione handed the baby over the moment Harry walked in the door, saying, "Burp him please, I just fed him. I'm going to check on Ron and Rose."

Hugo was five pounds heavier and an inch longer than the last time Harry had held the baby. He'd seen Hugo twice since finding out about Draco and the Malfoy children, but this was the first time he wasn't busy with his own children and had the time to hold his newest nephew. After Teddy went off to Hogwarts, Harry planned on spending several nights a week here visiting his best friends and getting to know the new baby. But with everything else that had been going on, little Hugo was moved down the list of priorities. Harry now took the opportunity to study the little face with bright blue eyes. The head was absolutely covered in thick brown hair the same color as Hermione's, but not nearly as curly. Hugo's hair was short and wavy, but not curly.

Harry had Hugo on his shoulder, a burp cloth carefully positioned on his shoulder, when Ron came in. "Hey Harry," Ron said, giving Harry a quick hug, careful of his son in Harry's arms, before beginning to look around the room, moving toys and papers around. "I'm looking for Rose's toy squid. It's for the bath. You know, the purple one? She won't let me bathe her without it."

Harry looked around, but didn't see the toy. He was about to say so, when Ron looked under the recliner and came back up with the purple rubber squid.

"Found it!" Ron shouted down the hall. "Listen, Hermione and I've been talking about your situation. I'll let her explain it, but don't leave before I get a word with you."

Harry agreed and Ron ran down the hall with the toy. There was a bit of commotion as Ron and Hermione wrangled their three-year-old daughter into the tub with the promise of bubbles and the toy squid to play with. Hugo fell asleep on Harry's shoulder after burping, so Harry put the baby down in the bassinette in the living room. He sat next to the bassinette and waited for one of his friends to come back.

A minute later, a frazzled looking Hermione returned, sweeping her bushy hair out of her face as she sat down. "Harry, I'm so glad you came. Whew! There has just been too much going on lately!"

"It's okay Hermione, I know you've been super busy with Hugo," Harry said.

"Yes, but that's no excuse. You've been busy too; finding out you have three children all at once? Ron and I should have made more time to be there for you with everything you've been going through lately," she replied, placing a hand supportively on Harry's arm.

"I have been very busy, but like I said, it's going alright. Draco has been helping me and the children become adjusted. He's the one who came up with the idea to get Nysus to come around."

"How's that?" Hermione asked.

Harry told his friend about Draco's signing Nysus up for the muggle children's theater that was to start the next day. Hermione agreed that it sounded like a good idea, since it was something the child really wanted to do and would force Nysus to interact with Harry alone. Then she changed the subject.

"Listen Harry, I want to talk to you about the virus, before you go. Specifically, where your infection came from. I know Goyle hasn't been able to isolate your sample," Hermione grimaced here, as if to indicate that no one expected the inept healer to do anything right, "but, I've been reading up on the subject and have given it a great deal of thought." She summoned a very thick, old leather book.

"What's that?" Harry asked, indicating the book.

"A history of Incubi and Succubi infections in the last five hundred years. It's all very fascinating, really. Now the privacy of living witches and wizards is protected by the law, but that protection ends upon death. Once someone with the infection dies, their name goes down in the history, along with various facts, so that we can trace the virus back through time."

"Any likely candidates for my grandfather?"

"That's just what I was getting at, Harry. In short, no, the more I read about the campaign in the mid nineteenth century to eradicate the virus, the less likely it seems that there was a rogue Incubus out there active in nineteen fifty-nine, the year your mother was conceived. You see, a hundred years previously a wide-spread effort was made to identify everyone with the virus. Every witch, wizard, and child was tested. Those with the virus were recorded and forced to take the suppressant potion. Due to the stereotypes and fear at the time, pretty much everyone with the virus either married young or died prematurely. Some of them were killed, some of them committed suicide, but no one with the virus was allowed to remain single and untreated."

"But that's in this country. Surely Incubi were unmonitored elsewhere. Access to dreams is not restricted by location. Maybe my grandfather wasn't British. Maybe he lived on the other side of the world," Harry said, remembering what Draco had said about plaguing victims in Australia during the war.

"Harry, only the really powerful Incubi and Succubi can affect someone more than a few hundred miles away."

"Would it be possible to victimize say, someone in Australia from here?"

"No, not likely," Hermione answered. "It's virtually unheard of for a British individual to enter the dream of someone outside of the continent. Australia is in the southern hemisphere; that's on the other side of the Earth."

Harry sighed, considering his options. He knew it was possible, because Draco had admitted to doing it. But, he couldn't say how he knew, without giving Draco away or confessing to more crimes he didn't commit. In the end he settled for nervously running his hands through his hair and not saying anything.

"So realistically, we are talking about finding an unregistered Incubus somewhere in Europe in nineteen fifty-nine. The problem with that is that the effort to eradicate the virus was carried out throughout all of Europe, the British colonies, and parts of America. It's just so unlikely for someone to have slipped through the cracks," Hermione continued.

"That's not true. We both know that there are an infinite number of ways someone could have slipped through, Hermione," Harry replied. "First of all, we don't know that it wasn't a super powerful Incubus responsible, no matter how unlikely." Hermione made a noise of protest, but he plowed on. "Second, we don't know where my grandmother was impregnated. She might've been traveling out of the country. We don't have any records on her, because she was a Muggle. And since my grandparents and my parents are all dead, there is no one to ask."

"Alright, I'll give you that one," Hermione conceded.

Harry nodded and continued, "And third, I have a mutant form of the virus that is not recognized by the standard detection spell. My ancestor at the time of the eradication efforts probably tested clean, because he or she had the same mutant strain. That combined with a tendency to marry early explains how the virus escaped detection."

Hermione thought about it for a minute, before conceding. "Alright, but we really need to get a culture of your strain, so that a new spell can be designed to test for it. If there is one, there could be others."

"My healer took another sample on Wednesday. With any luck, we will have something to work with next week," Harry replied.

"Greg Goyle? Really Harry, you can do so much better. I've looked up a number of experts in the field," Hermione started, but Harry interrupted her there.

"No, I'm sticking with Goyle for now. He hasn't had a proper chance. He just needs more time to isolate the virus."

"He's had a month, Harry."

"And it takes two weeks to do each culture. The second one was never going to take, because I had too much suppressant potion in my system. The first one could've been his first ever isolation attempt, for all we know. He's a new healer who just got his license to practice. Sure he was a bit slow in school, but he's turned his life around. He's Draco's best friend, Draco asked me to give him a chance, and that is exactly what I plan on doing," Harry said persistently.

"Alright, but if he doesn't manage a culture soon, then you at least need to see another specialist to obtain a proper culture," Hermione compromised.

"Hermione, you know I love you, but this is my life."

"And sometimes you need me and Ron to butt out, I know. But please, Harry, this is important."

"To you. Personally, I'd rather not know."

"Harry, have you considered that this might not be from your mum at all? What if it's from your dad?"

"Draco and I have discussed it, but it seems unlikely. How many generations must've gone undiagnosed? The Potters are Purebloods with a well-documented lineage," Harry answered.

"And that lineage includes Cygnus Black the Second, your great grandfather, a registered Incubus," Hermione replied.

This was in fact the same ancestor Draco had inherited the virus from. Neither he nor Draco had thought about the possibility of claiming that Harry had inherited the virus from his dad through the Black side of the family tree. He thought about it now, silently considering it.

"Cygnus Black had four children, Harry, none of which were reported to have inherited the virus," Hermione continued. "With a fifty-fifty chance of passing it on, the odds that none of the children would get it is rather low. Now one of the children was a Squib and the virus itself is magical, so a Squib couldn't possibly have it, meaning that we can cross her out, but that still leaves three children without it."

"I have three children and only one of mine has it." Harry shrugged. "All three without it doesn't seem that unlikely."

"Maybe not, but let's say one of the Black children _did_ inherit the virus. The random checks for the virus were already over by that time. One negative test at birth and the child would be considered clean. Maybe Dorea Black already had the mutant form that tests clean, maybe the Blacks paid a healer to switch her test results with someone else's. They are not exactly the type of family to be above doing something like that."

"Maybe…It's certainly possible," Harry agreed.

"Don't you want to know Harry? For certain? If your virus comes from the Blacks, then it would mean that Mr. Evans really is your biological grandfather after all," Hermione concluded.

"Actually, no, I really don't want to know. If this was only about me, I would say leave it be. Everyone involved is dead. Mr. Evans raised my mum and that makes him my granddad, regardless of whether or not it was his sperm that made my mum. I sort of like the idea that my Aunt Petunia is only my mother's _half_ -sister." Harry still disliked his Muggle family and there was something innately appealing about distancing himself from them genetically.

Hermione nodded her understanding and let Harry change the subject. They talked then about her life and began swapping tales of things their children had done recently.

Ron soon came out of the bathroom soaking wet, carrying a squeaky clean Rose wrapped in a hooded bath towel. Hermione took Rose to the bedroom to change, finally giving Ron a chance to talk to Harry. Ron asked first about what Harry thought of Hermione's hypothesis and Harry admitted that it was a reasonable possibility.

Ron was glad to hear it and quickly moved on to news of George. Apparently Angelina had made George see reason with regard to the Malfoys and the wizard was now sorry for the things he'd said to Harry. George was going to let Roxy and Angelina attend Nysus' party without him and Fred, but he'd mentioned wanting to get together with Harry and the Malfoys soon, in order to apologize. That was a relief to Harry, because he really was quite fond of George and didn't want to lose the wizard as a friend.

* * *

Author's Note: Up next will be Nysus' birthday party. I think the Malfoys will go all out for a Halloween costume party. What all do you think that entails?

On a side note, I just started posting a new mpreg Drarry story called The Ancient and Most Noble House of Black. In it, Draco manages to get past the wards of his ancestral home and into Grimmauld Place and Harry's bed. I highly recommend checking it out!

(slash)works(slash)5692003(slash)chapters(slash)13112236


	16. Chapter 16

"Sorry I'm late for your little boy's party, Harry," Luna said, rushing in well after the party had started.

The ginormous room was decorated all in orange and black, heaps of candy corn and candied apples spilling from the buffet tables, and an entire corner stacked to the ceiling with brightly wrapped packages. The floor was packed with guests, all in elaborate Halloween costumes and checking out what was to come. It was a huge turn out with representation from both Harry's and Draco's friends and family.

Harry hugged Luna. Then he pulled back and said, "I'm glad you could come, Luna. You've met my boyfriend, Draco."

Draco extended a hand, smiling.

"Yes and I must say, the two of you make beautiful children," Luna said, shaking Draco's hand.

Draco's smile fell. He turned ever so slightly to Harry and whispered accusingly "What is she talking about? Did you tell her?" As long as they hadn't told the children, he was not okay with this. And he definitely wasn't ready to tell the children. The thought of it sent him nearly into a panic attack, which he staved off through his years of suppressing his emotions.

"No, I swear I didn't. She's Luna, she knows things," Harry whispered back.

"It's quite alright. Mum's the word," Luna said, zippering her mouth shut.

Then Luna floated off into the crowd, leaving a stunned Harry and Draco in her wake. Draco scowled at Harry, wondering if Harry was lying or if Lovegood was clairvoyant. But they didn't have time to have it out, because the main festivities were about to start.

Draco let Harry then, to get Nysus in place and quiet the crowd for his son.

"I, Dionysus Malfoy, welcome all of you to my birthday party!" Nysus announced, standing on a pedestal to reach the podium set up at the front of the ballroom. "It's time to honor the most important thing that ever happened in the entire history of the universe, ever: my birth!" No one ever claimed he didn't take after his father when it came to conceitedness.

The crowd cheered, so excited about the activities planned for the night to care much that the birthday boy might just be the most self-centered little brat the Malfoys had ever produced. And the Malfoys had produced a lot of those over the centuries.

Harry watched from Draco's side as Nysus made the opening speech and led them through a simple ritual to honor the dead. Harry had been surprised to learn that his seven-year-old son would be leading them. He knew he'd never have been able to do such a thing when he was seven, but Draco assured him that Nysus had done it all last year and that it had turned out fine. Harry trusted Draco, but he still assumed his son's speech would be short and simple and that Draco would step in to lead the ritual. That didn't happen.

Nysus was loquacious, measured, enthusiastic, and excited as he performed the ritual. It was a standard Halloween ritual designed to commune with the dead and it was done every year on his birthday. Last year he'd done it himself for the first time, although the two years before that he'd merely helped his father perform it. And the year before that, his very first memory of his birthday, he'd stood by Draco's side and watched, without helping.

Every year had the same result and this year was no different: a hush fell over the gathering as smoke emerged from the cauldron, and a face appeared in black and white in the smoke. It was the face of a young witch, long, straight hair flowing, bright eyes shining. Her image had been fuzzy when it first materialized six years ago, but over the years, it had firmed up and the last two years, even uttered a blessing on the living. This time she said, "Thank you for summoning me from the dead, Dionysus, my son. You've grown a lot this past year, both physically and mentally, and I am so proud. Your ancestors and I watch over you, you know. This year, you will need to go forth and be more accepting. If you do, you will come to realize that the recent change in your life is for the better." And then she was gone, nothing more than dissipating smoke once more.

Harry was speechless, as was the entire audience, but he took even longer than most to recover.

"You alright, Harry? I told you about his guardian ancestor. You can't be that surprised," Draco said, tugging Harry's arm and jostling him out of his thoughts. He wasn't supposed to be straightening Harry out right now. He was supposed to be helping with the transition. Nysus had to step down and the elders had to come forward to honor all of the dead, not just Nysus' dead.

"My mother," Harry finally said. The colorless picture didn't portray Lily's lustrous red hair or bright green eyes, but he would recognize her anywhere.

"What?" Draco asked.

"My mother. That was my mother. That was Lily Potter," Harry explained.

"No, that's one of our ancestors. She has always come for Nysus on the day of his birth," Draco replied, peering over Harry's shoulder to see that the elders were getting themselves in place without him, although he still doubted they could do it all on their own.

"And she's my mother," Harry insisted.

"Your mother? Nysus' guiding ancestor?" Draco asked and Harry nodded. "Well that explains why we weren't able to find a photo of her in any of our albums. Here we'd thought she must've lived long before the photograph was invented, but I guess it's just the opposite."

"Should we tell him?" Harry asked, nodding to where Nysus was greeting guests, having stepped down from the pedestal.

"Not with everyone around! Tonight won't do, full stop," Draco answered.

"This might be just the push we need to tell the children everything," Harry persisted.

"But I'm definitely not anywhere near ready. I need time! I need to formulate a plan! And I don't have time for any of this right now! Old Mister MacDougal," Draco pointed to one of the elders setting up in a haphazard and senseless way on the stage, "is all turned about. I need to help him get sorted first, before I worry about anything else. I have to focus on the party for tonight."

"Alright. Go ahead. We'll discuss this more later," Harry said understandingly. This was the first birthday he'd been invited to for any of his children and he was worried about messing it up. Of course he was more concerned about explosive meetings between guests, but still, today was about Nysus and his mother would have to wait.

"Thank you." Draco nodded, squeezed Harry's hand, and then darted up onto the stage.

* * *

Author's Note: With this new development, hopefully you can tell that the story is wrapping up. There are only going to be a few chapters more.

I meant to have more than this for this chapter, but I've found myself stuck. I have a scene that occurs in the very near future, possibly the next day, where they tell the children. I also have another sex scene between Harry and Draco, where they are relieving some of the stress involved with all of this, but I don't know where the sex scene should go. Should it happen directly after the party, when the kids are finally in bed? Or even the following night, after Harry and Draco have had a chat about plans to tell the children the next day. Both of those would make it the beginning of next chapter. Or, should I make it after they tell the kids, at the end of next chapter? Alternatively, the sex scenes are mostly cut from the fanfiction version, so should I bother having them at all on fanfiction? I could make it its own sort of bonus chapter available only on AO3.

Please let me know what you think and help me solve this conundrum.


	17. Chapter 17

Later that night…

*censored.

Incubi required frequent sexual release, more so in times of stress and the party had certainly been full of stress.

Harry had started out the evening determined to ensure that none of the guests got into it, thinking that that was all that was needed for a smooth party. But then he'd been thrown off guard when his friends and family started coming up to him after having recognized Lily, and not just Hermione and Ron and the few others who knew about him being the father. He'd had to beg witch after wizard after witch to keep quiet, but still the rumor spread. By the end of it, when the children were coming down from their sugar-highs and struggling to carry all of their Halloween goodies, they were led away by parents who wore suspiciously knowing looks. Including those on Draco's side, because gossip apparently knew no bounds. It was only a matter of time before it ended up in the papers and the entire Wizarding World knew.

Draco had held things together through bedtime, but it was obvious to Harry that Draco was frazzled. Harry had thus done what he did almost every night: pull Draco into bed and initiate sex. Draco had been a beat behind, worried about what they were going to do. Draco wasn't ready to tell their children, he needed a plan, and he would've stayed up the entire night analyzing all possible options, if Harry hadn't distracted him.

"Oh no you don't," Harry said. "You're not having a little orgasm now and waking me up in half an hour to fuck you properly." He knew all about how much sex an Incubus needed to be satisfied and the fifteen minutes they'd been at it was not nearly long enough. Sure he could let Draco get off, bugger Draco, roll over, and go to sleep, but that had never resulted in a good night's rest in the past. No, if he wanted to sleep, he had to get Draco off properly and that took time.

Draco thrashed his head back and forth and bucked his hips up into the air, seeking any form of friction that would help him get off, but there was none. Harry had taken it all away, leaving him to cool down and settle back into a needy, and not orgasming, state.

"You alright?" Harry asked, noticing that Draco's breathing was evening out. Draco nodded. "Good. Legs back up, thighs spread wide." He tapped a hand on Draco's firm lower abdomen, to emphasize his point, causing a sharp intake of breath from the other wizard.

Draco complied with the orders, getting back into position, on display for his lover. Soon he was moaning again. He felt like his whole body was on fire with desire, but he was no longer there. The precipice was once more unattainable.

*censored

Draco screamed and began thrashing again, letting out a string of unintelligible mumbles.

"Are you close again?" Harry asked, pausing in his work. Draco nodded. "Can't have that, can we? You're going to have to hold off, or I'm going to stop. You don't want that, do you?"

"Nnnugh!" Draco exclaimed, thrashing his head to the side and bending his neck up to the ceiling as he clamped down, holding back, knowing that Harry was right.

"Hmm? What's with you tonight, I wonder? That's twice you've almost cum too soon. It must be all the tension from today, don't you think?" Harry asked, leaning in close to get a good look at Draco's bits. Today had been hard for the both of them, but he didn't want to think about that now. This was about relieving their stress and letting said stressors completely vanish from their minds.

Draco felt Harry's hot breath ghost over him, but held back. He pushed thoughts of sex from his mind, until it was completely empty. Then he nodded to Harry, to indicate he was ready again. Harry was right; this was the type of intense pleasure that they needed to prolong.

*censored

When it was over, they were both satiated and drifted off to sleep, the worries of the day put off for the morning.

* * *

The following day found Nysus sorting through his presents, creating a number of piles in the middle of the floor. Scorp was helping him, occasionally pulling a gift out and asking to keep it; those ended up in a small pile in the corner. Nysus was adding yet another action figure to the largest pile, when Draco and Harry walked into the room.

Harry nudged Draco, implying that Draco really ought to be the one to start this conversation. Draco tried to tug Harry back towards the doorway, needing at least one more reassurance, and clearly indicating a desire to back out of this. Harry planted his feet, refused to budge, and jerked his chin in the direction of their boys, eyes hard and stern. This had to be dealt with now, because the children needed to hear from them before it was common knowledge. It wasn't in the morning paper, but it was only a matter of time before word got out.

Draco's body language conveyed reluctant defeat as he succumbed to what he knew they must do. He stepped forward and announced to his sons, "Scorp, Nysus, we need to talk."

"Yes Father? I'll have these ready to be given away by tomorrow, I should think," Nysus said, motioning towards the largest pile.

"Those are the ones you're giving away?" Harry asked surprised. He knew the point of the sorting was to weed out presents to be given away, but he'd assumed the largest pile were the ones Nysus was keeping.

"To the orphanage. Father says orphans like crappy presents," Nysus explained.

Harry blinked, still having trouble comprehending that the child he'd assumed was just as stuck up and spoiled as Draco had been, didn't actually want the majority of his birthday haul. "You don't like your gifts?"

"Not all of them are lame, but these are. Father says not to tell people that, though. 'A good host is always…'" Nysus trailed off, trying to remember the quote, before giving up. "Boring."

"A good host is always appreciative of his presents," Draco corrected.

"Yes, that too. Then dumps them on unsuspecting orphans who don't realize they've been had," Nysus replied.

"What's wrong with these presents?" Harry asked, picking up a book that was part of a very popular set for children. Underneath it was a coloring book of the same brand.

"That's a double. So unimaginative…" Nysus drawled as if put upon.

"Right," Harry replied, tossing the book back onto the pile.

"Anyway, Nysus, Scorp, there is something Harry and I need to talk to you about," Draco repeated, now resolved to get this over with.

Nysus and Scorp looked to Draco then, forgetting the presents. "Yes Father?" Scorp asked.

"Harry recognized the ancestral witch from the ritual yesterday," Draco revealed.

"Harry did?" Scorp asked, surprised and a bit perplexed.

"Who is she?" Nysus asked, simply curious.

"My mother," Harry revealed. He'd been nervous about this moment since learning that the children were his. It was only a matter of minutes, maybe seconds, before it was all out. That knowledge had his heart racing, but he was more anxious now than nervous. He was ready for his children to know that they were his. He was ready to claim them, to love them properly. He wanted this and that made him brave and determined.

"Your mother?" the boys asked in unison.

"Yes, my mother. She died when I was a baby," Harry replied, watching them eagerly for signs of understanding.

"That can't be. She's one of _our_ ancestors, not yours," Scorp retorted.

"Yeah," Nysus seconded.

"Harry's mother _is_ one of your ancestors," Draco said, receiving stunned silence in return. "Because Harry is your other father. He's your dad."

"No…" Scorp whispered.

"No!" Nysus shouted. "You're lying!"

Harry was frozen to the spot. He wanted more than anything to run forward, engulf both boys in his arms, and never let them go. But it was unanimous: they were rejecting him. They didn't want him. He couldn't move.

"I'm not. It's true," Draco insisted.

"No! He can't be! He's awful and I hate him!" Nysus jumped up and ran from the room.

Harry moved to run after, unable to think properly and reacting on impulse. But Draco caught his wrist and said, "Let him go." Harry stopped, once more not knowing what to do. How could he fix this? Was it even possible? He couldn't lose them, not before he'd ever had them properly.

Draco pulled Harry closer, cradling him in the crook of an arm for emotional support. They both needed it in this moment. Then he turned the pair of them toward his oldest and asked, "Scorp, what are you thinking?"

"This can't be true. We only have one father. You said so," Scorp answered.

"Because I didn't want to share. It was selfish of me. But Harry is your father; Nysus' and Cori's too," Draco said.

"Does Cori know?" Scorp asked.

"No, I don't think she is old enough to understand. You don't need to hide this from her though; we are going to talk with her next," Draco answered.

Scorp nodded and asked, "And Grandmother?"  
"She knows. She's known all along," Draco replied.

Scorp gulped. "And everyone else? Are Nysus and I the last to know?" He blinked back stinging tears.

"No, of course not!" Draco exclaimed, wrapping his arms around his son. He had to let go of Harry to do so and he felt bad for it looking at the lonely way Harry was holding himself, but it couldn't be helped. Their son came first. "I didn't tell anyone other than your grandmother. Harry didn't know until he came snooping around asking questions."

"You didn't know?" Scorp asked Harry from Draco's arms.

"No, I didn't," Harry confirmed, glad for an easy question and hopeful that Scorp was coming around. "I didn't know your father even had children."

Scorp nodded. "You didn't abandon us?"

"Oh no! Never!" Harry exclaimed, wrapping his arms around Draco's, around their son. Draco shifted over, letting go, and Scorp fell onto Harry's chest as the pair continued to embrace. Suddenly Harry knew what to say and the words gushed forth. "I would _never ever_ abandon you or your brother or your sister. And I won't be letting your father get away again. You're all stuck with me now."

"Father?" Scorp asked, looking up at Draco with glistening eyes.

"I won't push him away again. It was wrong of me," Draco said. "Do you think you can forgive me?"

Scorp nodded and asked, "What are we going to do now?" He could forgive his father just about anything. Whether he could accept Harry Potter as his dad was another matter entirely.

"Tell Cori and try to bring your brother around," Draco answered. What else could they do?

"Don't be too mad at him," Scorp replied.

"I'm not. This isn't his fault, just like it isn't yours. It's a lot to take in," Harry said earnestly.

Scorp was taken aback by that comment and pulled away from Harry's embrace. "Do you blame Father, then? Are you mad at him?"

Draco reached out for Harry's hand, eager to reestablish contact. "It was entirely my fault, Scorp, not Harry's. I was wrong," Draco admitted apologetically. "I will have to live up to my mistake."

"No, Scorp, I'm not mad at your father. I was upset when I found out, but only because I'd missed so much time with you. You lot are the best thing that's ever happened to me," Harry insisted.

Scorp nodded and asked, "Can I come with you to tell Cori?"

"Yes," Draco agreed, relieved that Scorp sounded accepting.

Soon the three of them were in the playroom with Cori, who was passing out dolls for them to play with.

"Cori?" Draco asked, taking the proffered baby doll and stowing it under his arm. The hard part was done, whether it was done right or not, it was done. There was no going back now and only time would tell. This was the easy part, so he might as well get it over with. All those years of being selfish and cheating Harry out of something that Harry had every right to share in were over. It was time to man up, tell one last child, and hope he'd be forgiven.

Cori looked up at Draco and nodded silently.

"Cori, Harry is your father," Draco confessed.

"You Fa'er," Cori replied, shaking her head.

"Yes, I am your father, but Harry is too. You have two fathers," Draco explained.

"Fa'er?" Two?" Cori asked, pointing first to Harry, then to Draco, then to herself.

"Yes, Cori has two fathers. What do you think of that?" Draco asked with baited breath.

Cori shrugged and went back to her toy box to fetch bottles to hand out to everyone. Everyone else, including Scorp, sighed in relief.

"Is that it?" Harry asked Draco, taking the bottle Cori handed to him and pretending to feed his doll.

"I guess it is," Draco concluded, doing the same.

"Cori doesn't understand, does she?" Scorp asked, totally disinterested in the toys his sister had forced on him, which hung limp from his hands.

"Maybe, maybe not. She might understand more than we give her credit for," Draco said.

"I'm going to go find Nysus," Scorp said, flinging the toys down on the ground. He'd wanted to be here to see his sister told, but now that it was clear she wasn't going to feel what he was feeling, he wanted to find the one person who was his ally in all of this. Maybe Nysus had it right and running off was the way to go. He just didn't have Nysus' dramatic flair for it, though, unable to help exiting in the dignified manner he was taught.

Draco waited until the door closed behind his oldest, before saying, "He's taking this well."

"Yeah. What I wouldn't give to spy on our boys right now," Harry replied, trying to recall where the nearest pair of extendable ears was.

"Don't even think about it. Let Nysus come around on his own," Draco said, unsuspecting that the coming battle might be waged on two fronts.

"But what if he doesn't?" Harry asked nervously.

"Then at least he knows," Draco answered. "Besides, I doubt the fact that his guiding ancestor is a Potter will go unnoticed. He looks up to your mother."

"He does?"

Draco nodded. "He's special; the only one born on Halloween and the only one with an ancestral spirit that materializes like that."

"It is unusual, isn't it?"

"It is. Only the most devote worshipers ever have an ancestral spirit deliver messages from beyond the grave."

"I didn't notice him being particularly religious," Harry commented.

"He's not; it chose him. Like I said, the spirit appeared when he was just a year old, for his very first séance."

"I'm glad she did. He'll need her help."

"Play!" Cori shouted, banging a toy tea kettle on the table to get their attention.

"Yes, of course, Sunshine. What shall we play?" Draco asked, jumping into action and attentively pretend-feeding his doll.

With that, the serious discussion was over, because their daughter desired their attention. Their sons needed time, so there was nothing for it but to tend to their little girl.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, what do you think? I have only one more chapter planned for this story and only the vaguest idea how I want to wrap it all up…


	18. Chapter 18

"Baker? Baker!?" Ron asked, jerking the parchment in his hands her emphasis. "Baker?"

"Baker," Harry confirmed.

They were in Ron's office in Auror Headquarters after five, when most of the other Aurors, including Ron's partner, had gone home for the day.

"But Baker? Really? No way. Uh-uh, can't be Baker. You look _nothing_ like a Baker," Ron replied.

"That's what the test says," Harry insisted. Goyle had done it: mixed up his test results with someone else's. Someone named Baker. It was about time too, because the months had dragged on and on and the Aurors were becoming rather impatient with the lack of results. Ron had practically ordered Harry to get someone competent to perform the test, but he'd refused and now it had paid off. Now he had a positive culture with a match to the Baker family.

There were a lot of possibilities for the origin of his virus, because the Baker family was one of the oldest and largest Incubi family there were. There were a dozen of them and several of them were Goyle's patients, explaining the mix-up. Draco had taken one look at the false positive result and told Harry to go with it. It was perfect.

"But your mum? A Baker? No. Nope. Not possible," Ron continued.

"Why not?"

"Look at them? Look at her? Red hair, green eyes? On a Baker? They all have brown hair and dark brown eyes."

"So? She got her coloring from her mum," Harry insisted.

"But she doesn't look anything like the Bakers! They all have that weak chin! Or rather, no chin. Your mum had a chin! You have a chin. Your kids have chins; all three of them. I've seen them."

"Her mum," Harry repeated.

"Well maybe…no, no, not possible. A good looking woman could make Baker genes look better, but she couldn't erase them! There would have to be some trace of…Bakerness…in any child they produce," Ron insisted.

"And just what is wrong with my kinfolk?" Harry asked indignantly. "The photos Draco showed me didn't look half bad."

"Which Baker did he show you? Howard? I bet he showed you Howard. Or Melvin. Maybe Marla. Was it Marla?"

Harry shrugged. "Don't know."

"Well those are the best looking of the Bakers, and that's not saying much. And they get their looks from their mum. Your mum wouldn't have been related to her. Your mum's dad would've had to be one of the five Baker brothers who were of age and unmated back then: John, Jack, Jacob, Jason, or Jeremiah. And let me tell you: neither you nor your mum is half ugly enough to be descended from any of them," Ron explained.

"Well we are," Harry insisted.

"No, you're not. I'm ordering another test. There's some mistake. Leave it to Goyle to mix up your results."

"No!" Harry exclaimed.

"Huh?" Ron asked, taken aback by the outburst. "Surely you want your name cleared as much as I do; you don't want it to get out that…"

"That I'm a Baker? Because they're ugly?" Harry asked, channeling his agitation into anger. He couldn't let Ron know the real reason that he couldn't have the test repeated. "The Great Harry Fucking Potter can't possibly be related to the Bakers, because they're ugly and have no chin, is that it?"

"You don't understand, mate." Ron had his hands up defensively, parchment still clutched in the left and partially obscuring his face.

"Then enlighten me."

"They're not just ugly. They're stupid too. They make Goyle look like a genius. And their blood purists! The lot of them were in league with Voldemort!"

"Those charges were never proven. None of them were convicted, were they?" Harry asked.

"Well no, but half the family died in the war, fighting on the wrong side, mind you."

"So? One of them, at least, didn't have a problem with Muggles. My mum's proof of that."

"Was probably using your grandmum, he was. Raping her without her knowing," Ron insisted.

"Yes, and I'm the result. Thank you very much for reminding me, but that fact doesn't change, regardless of who the rapist was."

"But a Baker? You can't seriously be okay with this?"

"What choice do I have?"

"You could get another test done, that's what choice."

"No, Ron. No more tests. You have the result. Find whichever Baker raped my grandmum, but leave me out of it," Harry said firmly.

"Just one more test," Ron hazarded.

"No, no more. I'm a Baker and that's that."

"But Harry? This can't be right."

"Why not? And I don't want to hear because they're ugly or stupid again."

"Well, Hermione! Hermione said that it has to be someone from outside the country, didn't she? The Bakers and all of the other British Incubi were being monitored too closely, weren't they?"

"Obviously not. One of them was cheating the system," Harry insisted. "All he had to do was lie about taking a few doses. Serum levels aren't continuously monitored."

"But you don't have the symptoms of the regular version of the virus! If any strain is typical, generic, everyday Incubi stuff, it's the Baker strain. That's one of the strains the detection test was trained off of! You have to have some distantly related strain that is so far removed that it's not recognized," Ron exclaimed, recalling Hermione's reasoning.

"Well we were wrong. It's just your average run-of-the-mill Baker strain."

"Then why don't you test positive for the virus?"

"It doesn't matter what strain is my parental strain, because either way, I don't test positive and it's an anomalous result. Some mutation occurred in my line that throws the test off. There's nothing more to it than that. It could've happened in any family," Harry answered, repeating back one of the excuses he and Draco had brainstormed.

" _Is_ there a mutation in this strain, though? It just says Baker." Ron was once more skimming through the parchment with the test results, looking for additional information that wasn't there.  
"It's hard to find something when you don't know what to look for. It's not my problem what the mutation is; I'll leave that up to the experts to figure out."

"You aren't curious?" Ron asked, parchment dropped to his lap.

"No. I've really had enough of this. I'm out of it. Draco and I are getting married and then all of this Incubus mess is no longer my problem. I know more than I want to know already," Harry lied. Well he did know more than he wanted to know, but Ron didn't.

Harry had already asked Draco to marry him. Draco had readily agreed, but insisted that Harry needed to ask Lucius' permission. Prisoner of Azkaban, Lucius Malfoy, and in front of Narcissa and all three children to boot. As Draco's father, Lucius was still the head of the family. Draco was confident that Lucius would give permission and that was the one thing that would stop Scorp and Nysus from objecting to the marriage; their grandfather had the last word and that was final. If Lucius granted Harry Draco's hand then it was the duty of the rest of the family to fall in line and carry out Lucius' wishes. As demented as counting on a Death Eater with a life sentence was, Harry couldn't help but be glad the wizard was on his side; anything to get his children to accept him and his marriage to Draco. That was why Harry had a family visit to the prison to arrange. Soon he'd have Lucius' permission, Draco's hand, and the family he always wanted. Now if he could just get his boys to cooperate.

Both Nysus and Scorp had been acting out since finding out that Harry was their other father. It was expected for Nysus, but not for Socrp. If anything, Nysus was taking it slightly better now, but Scorp had turned on them. The boys were teamed up in their rebellion, evenly matched in the war against accepting Harry as their dad. Whenever one of them started, the other joined in. At least they had a plan for how to deal with Nysus in the form of the theater club that was about to start and a promise from the child to be on his best behavior around the Muggles. They didn't have a similar plan for how to bring Scorp around and that was a problem.

"So that's that? You marry Draco, bugger his brains out every night, and don't care how it is that you came to have this virus that's fucked up your life?"

"As a matter of fact, I don't think this virus has fucked up my life. This virus has given me three wonderful children. And as long as Draco's fine with it, then I'm good. You and Hermione work on the mystery that is Harry Potter's Sodding Life yourselves. I'm out," Harry insisted once more.

"Draco doesn't care? He's fine with this all?"

"He is," Harry confirmed.

"Even the bit about you being a Baker?"

Harry nodded. "He is. Said it explains the thick skull; I've that in common with my Incubi kin."

"And he left it at that? Didn't use the opportunity to call you ugly or stupid?" Ron asked curiously.

"And why would he? We're not kids anymore, you know."

"No, of course not…I don't know. I just can't believe that Draco's fine with you turning out to be a Baker and I'm the only one who has a problem with it."

"I can't believe you're being such a huge prick either. Complete tosser, you are. You're 'posed to be my mate. Guess that doesn't apply now that you know I'm a Baker," Harry said petulantly.

"No! No, that's not true. You're still my best mate."

"Even if I'm a stupid, ugly Baker?"

"Even then. Forgive me?" Ron asked.

"Only if you drop this."

"I still have to look into it, it's me job, isn't it? But, if you'd like, I could keep what I find out to myself."

"I'd like."

"Seriously? Even if I find out which of the Bakers is your grandad?"

"Even then."

"Even if he's still alive?"

"Especially then. I don't want to know," Harry insisted. It would make it so much harder to pretend if he had an exact name and face on the guy he was pretending to be related to. Merlin, he hoped the bloke was dead. The last thing he needed was for there to be a trial and some innocent Incubus sentenced to Azkaban for raping his Muggle grandmother. That was the one thing that would force him come clean about the mix-up and retake the test. He desperately hoped it would never come to that.

"Fine."

"Fine," Harry repeated.

"Are we good?" Ron asked.

Harry sighed. "Yeah, we're good. You just have to handle Hermione for me."

"Deal," Ron conceded.

They exchanged manly slaps on the back and that was that. Harry was a Baker in the eyes of the law and there were enough candidates out there that it was very unlikely that an exact culprit would ever be pinpointed. He and Draco were in the clear.

* * *

Author's Note: I'd planned on wrapping it all up this chapter, but I couldn't decide how I want to end it. There are two things left: the meeting with Lucius and the resolution with the children. I haven't decided if I want to do a full scene with Lucius, or just summarize that he gave his permission for the marriage. And I'm not sure if that should come before the bit with the boys, or after.

I started writing the last chapter with the boys twice; I'm considering two different ways. In one, it skips to Nysus at the end of his muggle club, getting ready to put on his play. By then Nysus has been spending time with Harry for months and is mostly okay with him now. Scorp is still ambivalent towards Harry, but he has his swim team coming up, which Harry is taking him to, so it looks hopeful. The other version takes place when Nysus is just starting the theater club; he's just starting to come around, while Scorp is acting out major. The second version would be a full chapter, but sort of feels unfinished, because the boys still haven't fully accepted Harry.

So what would you all like to see happen with the Lucius part? Which ending would you prefer? And which should be first, Lucius or Nysus?


	19. Chapter 19

Harry was nervously waiting by his fireplace in the drawing room of Grimmauld Place when Nysus came through the floo.

"Is this it then?" Nysus asked, looking around with a disapproving scowl. "You live in this dump?"

As Nysus spoke, the floo roared to life again and Scorp popped out. Scorp dusted off his trousers and asked, "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing. This place is a dump," Nysus said as the floo roared to life a third time.

Draco emerged, vanishing the stray ashes with his wand. "That's no way to speak of the Black family's ancestral home," he chastised, not missing a beat.

"It's alright," Harry said, not wanting to get his boys in trouble. Personally he agreed with them: the house was in disrepair. He should've done more after the war; he had tried, but nothing he did made the place any better. It was still an unloved house and not a home.

"Yeah, Nysus is right, Father: this place is horrible," Scorp seconded.

"That's enough! This was my Great Aunt Walburga's house. It has been in the Black family for centuries. Someday it will be yours. You will show it some respect," Draco demanded sternly.

"Not mine. I call dibs on the Manor," Scorp said.

"No way; I want the Manor," Nysus countered.

"First born gets the Manor," Scorp retorted.

"Father!?" Nysus complained.

"I didn't make the rules. Scorp gets the Manor. You get your pick of the other properties. Then Cori gets her pick and Scorp gets what's left," Draco said matter of factly.

"I pick France!" Nysus called out, referring to the large villa the Malfoys owned in France.

"No, I want France! I'm the one who likes to swim!" Scorp objected. The villa was right on the water and perfect for swimming during the summer.

"I like to swim too!" Nysus retorted.

"The Manor has the pool," Draco interjected reasonably.

"Well I at least get the boathouse, then," Scorp said, crossing his arms and pouting.

"Sorry Scorp, but Cori gets to pick after Nysus. You get the Manor and whatever is left over after your siblings pick. You get the best and also the worst. That's the life of the first born," Draco said.

"Ha! You're gonna get this dump!" Nysus proclaimed, pointing an index finger at Scorp.

"I don't want it! You can't make me take it!" Scorp shouted back.

Harry looked at his wristwatch. His feelings were a little hurt, because by saying they didn't want his house, his sons were implying they didn't want him, but he also knew his house sucked. He didn't really blame them for not wanting it.

Draco caught Harry's glance, which triggered him to pull out his own pocket watch. Sure enough, they had to go. "Alright, enough about the house. We have to get in the automobile this instant or we'll never make it in time!" he announced.

"Hurry up! I'll not have you making me late!" Nysus called as he took off running for the stairs.

Scorp ran after Nysus. Draco and Harry followed quickly after. Harry drove them into Muggle London, operating his sedan. The boys were fascinated, asking Draco questions the whole way. Draco, never having owned or driven an auto, didn't know the answers; he in turned asked each one of Harry, who revealed the secrets of the complex Muggle contraption. The boys were so preoccupied, that they temporally forgot their resentment towards Harry.

They soon arrived at the theater. Nysus' troop had had their first meeting earlier in the week. Draco had taken Nysus to that first meeting by train, so that the child would appreciate just how far their destination was from their home in Wiltshire and why flooing to Harry's house was a necessity. Nysus seemed to get the message; he didn't even put up an argument when it came time to floo to Grimmauld this evening. And Nysus had gotten along with the Muggle kids and listened to the Muggle instructor, so there was every hope that this plan would work out splendidly.

Strictly speaking Harry didn't need to come along to every meeting. Draco had the time tonight and was certainly capable of calling a taxi cab from a Muggle phone. He wasn't great with Muggle transportation and doohickies, but he could get by. There was no reason a cab couldn't take them to their destination. But Harry had the time and a car, so as long as he wasn't working, he was going with his son. That was the whole point: to force Nysus to spend time with Harry. To that end, the plan was working. Nysus already seemed more accepting of Harry.

Scorp, on the other hand, was a different story. While Nysus was up on stage, listening to a lecture on the art of acting, Scorp was sitting in the audience with the other family members waiting around for the class to end. At first he was sandwiched into a seat between his two parents, which he quickly decided was intolerable. Initially he had taken the news that Harry was his dad far better than Nysus had. But Nysus was seven and had the attention span of a seven-year-old; he was easily distracted by fun activities and forgot to hate Harry while doing them. Scorp was ten and capable of keeping his disdain for Harry in mind at all times. Scorp would not be tricked or fooled into forgetting that Harry hadn't been part of his life for the first ten years of his life. And the more Nysus warmed up to Harry, the more Scorp resented the situation and took that resentment out on Harry.

"I want to go," Scorp hissed. At least he was complaining quietly.

"We can't go until your brother finishes. We just got here," Draco hissed in response.

"I shouldn't've come. This is so boring! I want to go home," Scorp whispered emphatically.

"We are in the middle of Muggle London. We can't just go home any time we like," Draco countered.

"Take me back. I'd rather stay with Grandmother," Scorp insisted.

"Next time you can stay home with your sister and your grandmother," Draco said.

Harry caught Draco's eye then. Draco knew what Harry wanted to offer, but he shook his head. Scorp had wanted to come and now Scorp needed to stay. They couldn't give in. In fact, they should have insisted Scorp take the train with them two days ago, because then Scorp would appreciate just how far they'd traveled to get here and they wouldn't be dealing with all this whining now.

"Next time I'm going to Jason's," Scorp said. "His mother said I could come over." Jason was one of his best friends. Typically Jason flooed over to the Manor and they went swimming, but that was only an option when Draco was home to watch them. Neither Narcissa nor Nanny Crabbe were comfortable playing lifeguard.

"Fine," Draco agreed.

Five minutes passed in silence, before Scorp reiterated, "This is _soooooo boring_! I don't want to be here."

"Why don't you find someone to play with," Draco suggested, motioning towards the Muggle children milling about.

"They're all babies, aren't they?" Scorp asked incredulously. He was right: he was the oldest child there not in the play. All of the brothers and sisters who were milling about were younger siblings, no more than Nysus' age and most quite a bit younger.

"It's probably not too late to sign you up for the play," Harry put in. He didn't particularly know what he was doing with the whole parenting thing. Mostly he let Draco take the lead, but he thought this was a good idea, so he put it out there. He was just naïve enough to think it might work.

"No!" Scorp insisted angrily. "I want to go. Now!" This time he wasn't quiet about his dissent. This time heads turned and the class paused, clearly interrupted by the outburst.

"Into the hall young man!" Draco practically growled under his breath.

"Draco, let me take him home. He needs to get used to going places alone with me if I'm going to take him to that swimming team thing this summer," Harry interjected. He wanted to spare Scorp the punishment that was surely coming.

Draco stared at Harry, contemplating the possibility.

Harry needed to be here for Nysus, to win Nysus over, but he also needed to make headway with Scorp. The theater club was doing wonders for Nysus' attitude towards Harry, starting even before the club's first meeting. It was working so well, they'd decided to try the same thing with Scorp. Only Scorp wasn't into theater or acting. Scorp was into swimming, so just that week they had signed him up for a summer swim team.

"Just let me go home," Scorp pleaded in a whisper, cowed and contrite now that he knew he was in danger of a punishment.

"I'll take him and be back in time to pick you and Nysus up," Harry bargained.

"You can do that? Drive that quickly?" Draco asked quietly.

"Yes. It's not that far," Harry answered.

Draco nodded. "Go on, before I change my mind," he said.

Scorp grabbed Harry's hand and tugged him towards the aisle. And just like that, they were partners in their escape. Harry was on Scorp's side.

Scorp smiled the whole ride to Grimmauld Place as he sat in the front passenger seat. And when he walked through Grimmauld Place to reach the fireplace, he said, "If Cori doesn't want this place, I'm gonna gut it and restore it to how it's 'posed to be."

"I'd liked that. Whatever you want to do with it," Harry said. And he meant it; he didn't plan on living here again. For all intents and purposes, he'd moved into Draco's suite months ago. And once they were married, it would be official.

"Can I go swimming?" Scorp asked, the moment Harry followed him through the floo to the Manor.

Harry stopped in his tracks, stunned. This was the first time Scorp had ever asked him for anything, like he was the parent. Draco was the authority. Draco was the one the children asked for things. Harry wanted so much to say yes, to watch Scorp swim, and to keep that smile on his son's face. "I'm sorry, I have to get back for Nysus. I have to drive and there's traffic." His hand rubbed the back of his neck, as he explained his excuses to his oldest. "There just isn't time, I'm afraid…"

Scorp waved the excuses off and said, "Whatever." Then he was off in the direction of the playroom, where Narcissa and Cori were.

Harry saw Scorp to the playroom and handed him off to a surprised Narcissa. Then he hurried straight back to the theater, getting there only a few minutes after the lesson ended. Nysus was still running about and chatting with the girls in the troop when Harry pulled up to the curb. Draco climbed into the car and together they waited patiently for the other parents to call their kids away first.

Ten minutes later, Nysus finally entered the car, exclaiming, "Did you see me!? I got the part! I'm one of Robbin Hood's Merry Men!"

"Yes, I saw you. Your audition went wonderfully," Draco answered.

"Did you see me, Harry?" Nysus asked.

"No, sorry, Nysus. Scorp was acting up. I had to take him home. I only just got back," Harry said, disappointment evident in his voice.

"It's okay. You'll see me next time," Nysus said, a sweet smile on his face.

Car still in park, Harry turned around to see the smile. In that moment, his middle son looked like an innocent sweet little boy who never gave his parents a lick of trouble. That moment was worth all of the tantrums and outbursts. He'd made both of his boys happy tonight and everything felt right in the world.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm still debating exactly where to leave this story. Nysus' acceptance is where I originally planned to leave it, before Scorp started acting up. Now it feels like I'm just shy of the end. Lucius might be next. Or Scorp's swim team. Or more of Nysus' theater club. Or, someone suggested they'd like to see the wedding. I haven't decided.

Please review!


	20. Chapter 20

Lucius met with Scorp and Nysus at Azkaban just prior to the family visit, in which Harry planned to ask Lucius' permission to marry Draco. This was done, because Lucius had a way of manipulating people into thinking what he wanted them too. He started with explaining to his grandsons that Malfoys deserve the best in everything and that included their father, Draco, deserving whichever spouse Draco wanted. He then went on to explain how Harry's status as a war hero, translated to political power, which Draco could harness for the good of the Malfoy family, once married. He made sure to emphasize how they were manipulating Harry into the marriage in order to use Harry to further pureblood aims. Fighting against Harry would hinder the family's ability to take advantage of Harry's name and influence.

The end result of the pre-meeting, was that when the family meeting came and it was time for Harry to ask Lucius for Draco's hand, there were two quiet boys standing witness without a complaint or objection to be heard. All of their problems weren't solved—the boys didn't suddenly start thinking of Harry as their dad—but it was a start. Lucius gave his permission and Harry put an engagement ring on Draco's finger. They all had half an hour more with Lucius to celebrate, and then it was time to board the boat back to the mainland.

"This is so much fun! I wish we could see grandfather all the time!" Nysus exclaimed on the return boat ride. As a precaution against escapes, no magical transportation was permitted on the island.

"Me too!" Cori seconded.

Scorp nodded, a sour look on his face. He'd swallowed Lucius' speech and was processing the ramifications of the engagement and how it was going to change things. He needed time to think about everything, to decide how he felt about it.

"I wish we could see him more often, but unfortunately there are rules against more frequent visitation," Draco replied.

"Well maybe he could come to see us next time," Nysus said, not understanding Lucius' incarceration in the least.

"Yeah, I show my room!" Cori added.

"And then we wouldn't have to come out here to visit him, if he came to us," Nysus reasoned. "And he could spend the night. I'd give him my room."

Scorp rolled his eyes, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah! Grandfa'er come our house!" Cori chimed in.

"I don't think that's going to work…" Draco hedged, not wanting to disillusion their young minds with the harsh reality of the situation.

"How far is it from here to London?" Nysus asked, suddenly on a different track.

"About as far as it is to Wiltshire," Draco answered, "Why?"

"Because my play's in London. If Grandfather can't come to our house, he could at least come to my play!" Nysus explained.

Draco groaned. Scorp rolled his eyes, again. Harry felt really bad. Cori thought it was a great idea.

"I want him to see me steal the show! I'm gonna be great," Nysus continued.

"You are," Harry confirmed. He'd seen Nysus working really hard on this and it was sort of a stab in the gut to have to tell his son that all the hard work in the world wouldn't get Lucius out of Azkaban for the day to see it. They couldn't even video tape it for Lucius to see. After the war, he'd been all for Lucius getting life in Azkaban, but in that moment, he began to wonder if Lucius had done enough time.

"It's not gonna happen," Scorp said, spoiling the fantasy.

"Why not?" Nysus asked.

"Because I haven't ever seen him leave. Stupid people said Grandfather has to stay there for the rest of his life," Scorp explained.

"That's not fair!" Nysus protested.

"Not fair!" Cori pouted.

"It's the way it is." Scorp crossed his arms.

"Daddy! You're Harry Potter! You could _make_ the stupid people let Grandfather come to my play," Nysus said emphatically, as if he believed Harry was capable of anything.

In that moment, with his son calling him Daddy and asking so sweetly, Harry wanted to move the Earth to grant his son's request. It was so hard to be realistic, but he couldn't let Nysus get his hopes up. "I'm sorry, Nysus, but I don't think I can do that."

"You can. You just have to try," Nysus encouraged.

"I'll ask, but I don't think I'll be able to do anything," Harry said.

"Yes!" Nysus exclaimed, as if Harry had just agreed to break Lucius out of Azkaban for the play.

"Yay!" Cori joined in, dancing around the boat in her excitement.

"Stay put, Cori. None of that until we make land," Draco chastised.

"Aw…" Cori whined, settling down.

Later, when Harry and Draco were at home and had a private moment to themselves, Harry said, "You know Draco, I'm not going to be able to get your father out for Nysus' play."

"I know," Draco answered, not giving the matter any thought. "I never thought you would."

"It would be easier almost to get your father released permanently than to get him released for the day."

"That's a great idea!" Draco said, as if Harry had suggested a campaign to free his father.

"Wait, I never said…" Harry waved his hands in front of his chest.

"This will be perfect for you! It'll give you something productive to do, so you can quit that awful job taking children away from their parents," Draco continued. He'd made no secret of his continued disdain for the Child Welfare Department and Harry's job enforcing laws that did as much harm to children as they did good.

Harry had been at his job just long enough to realize that he really wasn't helping anyone. Not the children, not the parents, not society. Mostly he was a pawn for politicians to threaten certain parents into towing the line. He was tired of being a pawn, but too proud to quit the Ministry. Lately he'd been entertaining fantasies of passing his physical and being transferred back over to the Auror corps. If only the spell damage wasn't so permanent…

"I don't know…I get the boys will like it, but it's sort of a losing cause, isn't it?" Harry hedged.

"Definitely not. It won't hurt anybody if you don't succeed. Things will just remain status quo. And if it means one more Child Welfare Worker off the streets, then it's win-win. At the very least, it's way better than if you keep doing what you're doing. And…And, you don't need to limit yourself to my father's case. You could take a page from Granger's book and open a society for the fair punishment of purebloods. You know, make sure no one gets more justice than they deserve and stop the government from taking pureblood children away, based on false accusations."

"Maybe…" Harry replied, thinking about it. Unfair treatment of the families of Death Eaters was one of his pet peeves. He could get behind a job helping them. "And your father has served over a decade. Maybe it is time to consider parole."

"That's the spirit," Draco said, clapping Harry on the shoulder and smiling. "And do you know what the best part is?"

"No, what?" Harry asked.

"Our boys will see you helping our people. They'll see you becoming one of us."

"You think they'll care? I mean about helping others. I doubt I'll be able to help your dad."

"Scorp will. Nysus and Cori will too, when they're older."

"Alright, I'll think about it," Harry said. After all, his children were pureblood descendants of Death Eaters: they were the type being targeted by malicious persecution in the post-war wizarding world.

* * *

Author's Note: I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to review the last chapter! Your feedback inspired me to write this chapter. I think I'll end this story with Nysus' play, which may or may not be next. Do you think Lucius should be there?

Please review!


	21. Chapter 21

The children stood lined up on the stage, hand-in-hand, and took their bows while the crowd cheered. Lucius Malfoy, sitting next to his wife and his son, cheered the loudest. Harry was so proud he wanted to hoot and holler, but Cori had fallen asleep in his lap, her little head snuggled against his chest, so he could barely clap without fear of waking her up. Scorp sat between Draco and Lucius, grinning ear-to-ear over Lucius' release.

Thanks to the children, Lucius was finally out of Azkaban. There were loads of restrictions on the release and the forms that had to be filled out months in advance for him to leave the Manor were so cumbersome that they practically ensured he'd never leave. Even with the forms, he was magically bound to Harry, unable to move more than ten feet from his soon-to-be son-in-law, including when it came to bathroom breaks. And of course the wizard couldn't so much as touch a wand without violating his parole and being thrown back in prison. But it was all worth it, because of how happy it made the children; that and it had helped bring them closer to Harry.

The campaign for Lucius' release had started the Saturday after their visit to Azkaban when Harry took his three children out to Fortescue's for ice cream. Word got out that they were inside and a crowd started to draw. By the time they were finished with their treats and Harry was vanishing the sticky remains from all over his daughter's hair, clothes, and arms, a reporter was there asking questions. Harry ignored the questions, but the boys didn't.

"How is Harry Potter as a dad?" the reporter asked.

"Brilliant! He's gonna bring Grandfather Lucius home soon! He promised!" Nysus enthused.

Harry was caught off-guard, not knowing what to say. He hadn't promised any such thing. He'd promised to look into it. He and Draco hadn't even told the kids about it yet, other than the discussion on the boat-ride to shore. He didn't want to contradict Nysus, not when it made the child so happy, but he also didn't want to give a false promise.

"If Dad can do that, then it'd be a miracle," Scorp said, far more skeptical.

"Former Auror Potter, is that true? Are you planning to have Lucius Malfoy released from Azkaban?" the reporter asked, putting Harry on the spot with the crowd and his children watching.

"Er…" Harry said. All he could think about was that Scorp had just called him dad. Scorp had barely agreed to go out with him, because ice cream wasn't enough of a bribe to have to endure his presence. Draco had had to threaten the child with a ban from swimming for the rest of the weekend in order to get Scorp to go. Normally Draco wasn't so forceful with the children, but he had a wedding to plan and things to do; he didn't have time to drag Scorp along when Harry was offering to watch the children. And everyone else Scorp might possibly stay with, like Narcissa, Grandmother Black, Grandmother Malfoy, and Nanny Crabbe, were planning the wedding with Draco, so there was nowhere for the child to go without being underfoot.

"Former Auror Potter, are you working to release Lucius Malfoy from prison?" the reporter pressed.

"Tell him, Daddy! Tell him you're quitting your job to bring Grandfather home!" Nysus insisted.

"Grandfather come home," Cori chimed in.

"Yeah Dad, tell them," Scorp challenged.

"Um, I am planning on quitting my job to work on various projects, one of which is to get Lucius paroled so that he can walk Draco down the aisle…" Harry hedged. "Now if you will excuse me, my children and I must be going. Please do not bother us as we shop today."

If this continued, they wouldn't be able to enjoy Weasley Wizard Wheezes, which he had planned for next. They had several more hours to kill before they were to meet Draco at Twilfit and Tatting for their wedding robes fitting and Harry had planned on spending that time having a fun-filled day in Diagon Alley with his children. He hadn't factored in the reporters, who really should've stopped being so interested in the details of his life years ago.

The crowd heard Harry's request and parted for them. Harry seized the moment, scooped Cori up into his arms, settling her on his hip, grabbed Nysus' hand, and said, "Come on Scorp. We have to get going."

And so they hurried along to George's shop, where they were able to take refuge. George was there, swamped with customers, but he took the time to wave and smile at Harry. The squabble he and Harry had had about their boys was behind them and they were friends again. The last family dinner at the Burrow had gone smoothly, with both Nysus and Fred sticking to their own friends and not fighting.

"Can we use the backroom?" Harry asked George.

George nodded and said, "Go ahead," barely looking up from the customer he was ringing up.

Harry directed the three children into the back, where they started oohing and awing at some new toy left out on the break table.

"Alright, not now. You all can explore the shop and buy whatever you want, but first I want to know how you knew all of that, Nysus. Who told you I'm quitting my job?" Harry asked, hands on Nysus' shoulders.

"You did. I heard you and father," Nysus answered, not understanding why it was a big deal.

"But we've only just started discussing it. We didn't tell you. You weren't there," Harry reasoned.

"We spied," Scorp offered with a shrug.

Harry turned to examine Scorp. "You heard it too?" Harry asked.

"With my extendable ears," Scorp confirmed, pulling a pair out of his pocket.

"It was my idea!" Nysus exclaimed, upset that Scorp was getting all of the credit.

"They are my ears!" Scorp retorted.

"Daddy, can I have a new set of ears? A peacock ate my pair!" Nysus complained.

Harry looked back and forth between the boys, then he glanced over to Cori and noticed why she was silent: she'd found a large box of individually wrapped little chocolates. She was just popping another in her mouth as he watched, which resulted in her hair and skin changing from Chudley Cannons orange to a vivid purple; she'd already eaten a few.

"Ah, ah, ah! Cori! We have to buy the colored candies before you can eat them!" Harry exclaimed, dashing over to set it right. He picked up three crumpled wrappers, so that he could pay for them and confined Cori back to his hip. That was a problem, because she heavy, so he sat down at the table and thought about what he was going to do.

At this point though, there wasn't anything for it but to go forward. He and Draco had been discussing the possibility of Lucius being released in time for the wedding and for Nysus' play. He was planning on quitting his job on Monday. The newspapers were going to know soon enough, so it wasn't a big deal that now they knew early. The children were nosey little spies, but he and Draco had been no different at their age and he couldn't blame them. They were supposed to be having fun. The children were having fun; Harry just had to forget his problems and get back to having a good time.

With that settled, Harry sent the boys out into the store with orders not to make a mess, and took Cori first to pay for the sweets and then to look at the pygmy puffs.

* * *

So Lucius' parole petition had started with the words of Harry's younger son at an ice cream parlor. The petition had become official later that week when Harry filed the paperwork and gave a short announcement to the press. But the real turning point had come when Scorp wrote an essay on how wonderful Lucius was to him and his siblings for school. Draco thought it was so good that he sent a copy along to the Prophet, where it was published on the front page. The entire wizarding world was soon intimately familiar with how important a convicted Death Eater was to the Savior's children.

Everything from there snowballed out. It was like Harry wasn't leading the charge for Lucius' release, but that it was leading him. Public opinion was on Lucius' side. He didn't understand how it had happened so quickly or why the words of two young boys had made such a difference, but it had and he wasn't about to stop it. If the courts were willing to release Lucius not just in time for the wedding, but for Nysus' play too, then who was he to protest? That was what he wanted.

And what Harry wanted most—his children to accept him as their dad—that seemed to go hand in hand with Lucius' release. He planned on bonding with Scorp over the summer with swim team meetings, but the summer was still so far away. Right now he had a chance to bond with Scorp over Lucius. He told both boys he needed their help on the campaign and made Scorp co-director of the project. Every day after lessons the three of them would huddle up and discuss the day's developments and what they needed to do next. Every weekend the three of them would make an appearance somewhere and say a few words to the public, to keep the momentum going.

It all happened so fast Harry was in a daze. Scorp helped keep him on track and that was something he really needed. Nysus helped too, together with Scorp, Cori, and Draco, driving Harry to get it all done in time. And now that it was done and Lucius was paroled to house arrest, they were all closer for it. Scorp and Nysus were no longer resentful of Harry, but proud of him. Harry had accomplished a miracle for them and in return, they forgave Harry his years of absence. It was all still so new and fragile that Harry worried it would only be a matter of time before his new perfect life started to crumble, but there was no sign of that yet. There was nothing but smooth sailing ahead, as far as he could see. He finally had the happy family he'd always wanted. And if it meant living under the same roof as Lucius Malfoy, then he was going to make it work.

"Was I good?" Nysus asked excitedly, running into Draco's arms after the performance. He was dressed in a leather vest, green tights, and a linen blouse. When they first saw it, the other children had been envious of how authentic his costume looked compared to their cheap nylon garments. Nysus had been jealous that his hadn't come out looking the same as theirs. But they didn't sell cheap nylon in the wizarding world and Nysus soon decided that his was better than theirs, so it was alright.

"Wonderful. Absolutely splendid," Draco said, picking Nysus up and spinning around before putting his jubilant son back on the ground.

"I agree. That was the most brilliant performance I have ever seen in my entire life!" Lucius exclaimed, bending down to hug his grandson.

"Truly magnificent," Narcissa said when it was her turn to hug Nysus.

"Good job," Scorp said, keeping his hug short.

"It was great. I'm so proud of you. I'm sorry I don't have my arms free to give you a hug," Harry said, Cori still asleep on his shoulder. He didn't know how she could sleep through this, but she'd been whinny all day, so he was eager to let her sleep as long as possible. She was going through a growth spurt, already shooting up an inch and thinning out a bit in the process, so she needed her rest.

"That's okay, Daddy. I'll just hug you," Nysus said, wrapping his arms around Cori's legs and Harry's middle.

"That's so sweet of you. I love you, Nysus," Harry replied.

"Love you too, Daddy," Nysus said, pulling away. "Now come on, we're having a celebration!"

And so it was. The happy family went into the backroom where the muggles were setting up pizza and cake in honor of all of the children's hard work.

* * *

Author's Note: Now it's really over. The end. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please favorite it and/or leave me a review.

If you are looking for something new to read, I have another Drarry mpreg story I'm working on called The Ancient and Most Noble House of Black.


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